Alternative pop experts Maxïmo Park today announce the forthcoming release of their sixth studio album, ‘Risk To Exist’, available on Daylighting/Cooking Vinyl from April 21st.
‘Risk To Exist’ sees Maxïmo Park on blistering form, bringing together their trademark hook-laden melodies and sense of urgency with off-kilter rock, soulful grooves and pop sensibilities. Informed by the dire state of world affairs in 2016 and crumbling political systems, their latest body of work is a vital record for our times.
Kinetic title track and lead single ‘Risk To Exist’ is a barbed introduction to the album, three and a half minutes of indie punk perfection crafted around rolling snare drums, a towering chorus and a central plea for humanity and solicitude. Inspired by the West’s response to the migrant crisis, the sneering, superior attitude of well-bred Tories, and the small, but meaningful gestures of love that reaffirm what is good in this world, it is a cry for compassion, and simply frames the precariousness of life in its refrain – “Throw your arms around me, I’ve come too far and the ocean’s deep”.
Frontman Paul Smith says: ‘The album is, ultimately, about empathy. Some songs are simple messages of solidarity and others are fuelled by anger at the elitist, established order of British society. There’s a questioning of power throughout and a feeling that there must be a different way of structuring our society in order to alleviate inequality. Musically, the songs reflect more soulful and groove-based influences, allowing more space in the arrangements than ever before. The central idea is to align great pop melodies with songs that reflect the state of the nation.”
These are pop songs that talk about big issues without talking down to the listener; an album where the political is also the personal.
‘Risk To Exist’ (released April 21st on Daylighting / Cooking Vinyl) was co-produced by Tom Schick (Wilco, Beck, White Denim) and Maxïmo Park. Keen for the inspiration of unfamiliar surroundings after writing the album in their native North-East, the band decamped to Wilco’s studio, The Loft in Chicago, in Autumn 2016. Recorded completely live, the recording represents another bold stylistic step for the band after 2014’s Top 10 ‘Too Much Information’. Maxïmo Park have also enlisted Mimi Parker from acclaimed US band Low for the record, whose voice lends its inimitable warmth to five album tracks, including lead single ‘Risk To Exist’.
Risk To Exist Tracklisting:
01. What Did We Do To You To Deserve This?
02. Get High (No, I Don’t)
03. What Equals Love?
04. Risk to Exist
05. I’ll Be Around
06. Work And Then Wait
07. The Hero
08. The Reason I Am Here
09. Make What You Can
10. Respond To The Feeling
11. Alchemy
