Fewer laws present themselves more accurately in music than that of diminishing returns.
Whether the times change, they change or both parties just agree to see other people, the list of outfits who’ve never topped their debut album is a lot longer than the one made up of artists who figured it all out much later in their careers.
Of course, there are some obvious exceptions: John, Paul, George and Ringo come to mind, while as a modern for instance, the Manic Street Preachers, who survived a couple of atypically pallid outings around the turn of the millennium before subsequently rediscovering much of their old hunger.
So, with this in mind, how are the veteran Maximo Park doing? Well, fine as it goes, although time invariably flies: it’s been more than three years since their defiantly expectation-busting Risk To Exist album railed against populism, the EU referendum result and the anti-migrant sentiment it unleashed. Described as a ‘political funk’ album by singer Paul Smith, it was a record that preached without being preachy and recalibrated what even they thought they could do.
Since then, Smith himself released the earnest but short on tunes solo effort Diagrams in 2018, however unforeseen disruption via the loss of keyboardist Lukas Wooller and then you-know-what has meant the prep for their seventh album has been less than perfect.
Never ones to look inward however, the rejuvenated line-up, complete with new inductee Jemma Freese, then partnered with Grammy-winning producer Ben Allen, for whom on request they wrote the forty-plus songs of which Nature Always Wins would comprise.
Allen in return showed his commitment to the cause by venturing over, in happier days, to Tyneside from his base in Atlanta, but otherwise recording took place in the trio’s various homes with ideas and sounds traversing the Atlantic via cyberspace; what emerged was an articulate riposte to any notions about an inability to adapt to circumstances.
For ideas, Smith used the little epiphanies which fatherhood brings as inspiration, the heartfelt post-punk of Baby, Sleep about finding new safe spaces in the role, while the similarly abrasive I Don’t Know What I’m Doing reveals the frustrations of rarely knowing what’s for the best in a maze of choices.
Sleep deprivation aside, energy booms from every note as Placeholder, the perfectly executed synth pop of Meeting Up and The Acid Remark’s dreamy European romance all present grittier new dimensions run against some familiar backdrops.
Getting on with life, Smith also fearlessly takes on becoming older on the rocked-out opener Partly Of My Making – “As you can clearly see,” he begins, “I’ve lost some luminosity,” whilst drums which sound like they’re about to take off pound the whole thing towards some indeterminate time in the future in which we’ll all be able to hear it live.
Everything feels duly authentic, just humans mastering the turmoil around them and seeding hope and empathy. At the apex of this olive branch to us all stands All Of Me, the sort of anthemic crie de couer which Brandon Flowers has parlayed into a decades-long career, its keening synths buzzing with a preciously affirmative lease of life.
Nature Always Wins is Maximo Park’s seventh album, and in defiance of those rules we just spoke about, it’s conceivably their best. These are strange days indeed.
