On the surface, the timing of Maxïmo Park’s debut album is crucial. With their razor sharp appearance, combination of keyboards and guitars, post-punk rhythms etc they are on the cusp of being slap bang in fashion and being dismissed as Johnny come latelys. The one advantage they do have, however, is that A Certain Trigger is pretty damned good, at least for the first hectic twenty minutes or so.
Track after track comes out of the speakers, nipping at your ankles like some overexcited dog that you can’t shake off no matter how hard you try. The production from Bloc Party/Futureheads man Paul Epworth is sparkling and the songs wed pop and punk in perfect manner, all delivered in the deliciously broad Newcastle tones of singer Paul Smith. It reaches a crescendo with the glorious ‘Going Missing’, at which point it seems that Maximo Park can do no wrong. Unfortunately, from then in they start to struggle a tad, the previously sure footed songwriting touch deserting them, which means the listener spends the next few tracks thinking more about the constituent elements than the overall package.
Things take a sharp upturn at the end with the dramatic spoken word of the Ultravox tribute/rip-off, ‘Acrobat’, and the positively beaming ‘Kiss You Better’. They could have done with losing maybe three tracks, but since the record clocks in at an already short and sweet forty minutes, perhaps delaying its release any longer would have been a dangerous move. Let’s just hope that someone has the faith to let Maxïmo Park grow and develop long after their current moment in the sun fades, as this looks like it could be a lot more than just a case of right place, right time.