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Review
A year on from his group’s rather disappointing third album Quicken the Heart, Smith is back with a collection of self-penned songs recorded with a collection of north-east friends including Field Music’s David Brewis on bass. This is apparently just a side project rather than the beginning of a solo career – Maxïmo Park are currently working on new material – and Margins doesn’t represent much of a departure away from their established template.
Tracks like North Atlantic Drift and Dare Not Dive appear to be Smith on auto-pilot and would slip seamlessly onto Quicken the Heart with their angular rhythms, spiky guitars and half-sung, half-shouted choruses. Our Lady of Lourdes is better – layered and more atmospheric – but there’s a general lack of killer tunes here and the likes of Wild Beasts have moved this particular brand of intelligent art rock on to a whole new, more interesting plane.
To be fair, delve a little deeper and there is some genuine branching out to be found. While You’re In The Bath is just a songwriter plucking his lone guitar and pouring out his heart, while Pinball closes the set impressively with its combination of haunting cello, maudlin, sonorous vocal and lilting country-folk chords bringing to mind a Geordie Micah P. Hinson.
Lyrically, Smith’s his usual intriguing if rather over-earnest self. In Improvement/Denouement he is "hooked to a reservoir of lust"; Pinball sees him alternately "categorising", "simplifying", "stultifying" and "agonising"; on Alone I Would Have Dropped he proclaims "the position of passion is irrelevant" before "unearthing a dinosaur’s spine". Whether even he really knows what on earth he’s talking about is a moot point, but straightforward girl meets boy stuff it certainly isn’t.
Nevertheless, as an overall package, Margins struggles to rise above the ordinary. Fans of Maxïmo Park will not be disappointed, but it’s frankly hard to see anyone else caring very much.
--Chris WhiteFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
which took four years in the making.
It is thoughtful and melodic.There are thirteen tracks on the album
and I can't say I disliked one of them.
The lyrics are quaint..."you can rely on nature's spite/to chuck another spanner in the works"(North Atlantic Drift),and sometimes
baffling..."we had a conversation/and we decided/three gulps of Coca-Cola would suffice"(The Tingles),but as a whole,Margins is pleasantly
pleasing,often very endearing,and so warmly-written that you could
wrap it up in velvet and snuggle inside it.
My favourite track is the breezy Strange Friction,with its David Gray-style intro and lovely chorus,closely followed by the pining Pinball,whose brilliant ukelele backing Paul Smith's torch singer's vocals, almost steals the song.
A strong highlight of the album is the special effects on I Wonder If,making the track almost unbearable to listen to(in a very good way,of course!!)- my spine almost crackled when I heard it.
Warm...is the word I would use to describe Margins.Every song has a
pure,honest(sometimes too honest,bordering on the acutely self-effacing)feel to it.
The album is absolutely nothing like Maximo Park's albums at all.
I sincerely hope it is a big success for Mr Smith.
Recommended.
With this album Paul breaks from the sometimes limited orchestration of Maximo Park. He explores softer and potent musical ideas that what work particularly well with his idiosyncratic lyrics. I go back to this disc a great deal and enjoy every track. There are some really sad images of relationship breaking down (While You're in the Bath), but the stories are varied since this was made over four years. "I Drew You Sleeping" is captivating; it flows with lovely guitar work and pauses almost oddly at first. Once you get to know it, it's hard to get it out of your head. It actually starts with something that is more Maximo Park than the rest, though North Atlantic Drift is still coloured by Paul's own palette.
It's a great album; I'd be happy if he stayed as a solo artist and maybe he will when he's had enough of all that leaping around with The Park.
The record is just as delicately surreal as the photos. Read more
And I havent heard anything expect North Atlantic Drift ... Read more
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