Maximo Park at the Sebright Arms

Maximo Park, named after Máximo Gómez Park in Miami’s Little Havana, formed in 2000. The band have since published five albums, most recently Too Much Information, which was released yesterday. To celebrate this release of the new “moodier” album the band have brewed a beer, Maximo No 5, in conjunction with the Mordue Brewery in Newcastle.

The album launch show was held at the Sebright Arms in Hackney, a small but well-known venue tucked away on a backstreet off Hackney Road. Maximo Park mainly showcased music from their new album, opening with Give, Get, Take before weaving in crowd pleasers such as Our Velocity and Apply Some Pressure.

The audience swayed and listened intently to the band’s new material, but some of the album’s new electronic sound and lyrics laced with literary references during songs such as Her Name Was Audre, written about poet Audre Lorde, were lost in the rock-biased setup.

The new album continues to uphold the highs set by the band in 2012’s The National Health, maintaining the importance of lyrical content while making a successful foray into new and unusual alt-rock territories; Leave This Island sees Bowie-esque tones from Smith and is perhaps their first song not to feature guitars, while songs such as Lydia, the Ink Will Never Dry, inspired by the short stories of Lydia Davies, suggest a reading list for listeners, providing a new way for fans to explore the band’s influences.

Too Much Information would have benefited from a slightly more refined set up for it’s launch show to really showcase the subtleties of Maximo Park’s new material, subtleties which give the album a slow release power as new delights emerge with each listen.

Iona Thomas

For further information and future events visit Maximo Park’s website here.

Watch the video for Leave This Island here: