Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger

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Quick and memorable

Warp - 2005 - 39 minutes

With the stylistic trawl through the 1980s continuing unabated, so grows the fear that a band in thrall to Kajagoogoo will soon be hailed as the world's brightest hopes. But outfits like Maximo Park reassure you that fads can sometimes throw up the worthwhile too.

The fact that the Newcastle five-piece and their jagged guitars are bizarrely signed to Warp Records - home to the Aphex Twin, Autechre and Prefuse 73 - suggests they have more to them than the also-rans. Sure enough, what 'A Certain Trigger' lacks in invention, it makes up for by being catchy, quick and memorable.

Frontman Paul Smith's Geordie twang gives an added edge to his small town tales of infatuation and the elbow, while the entire first half of the album offers up singles in succession. Proof that there could be even better to come arrives with penultimate track 'Acrobat', which is Bowie's 'Heroes' by way of Pulp's 'My Legendary Girlfriend' but does show they're thinking longer-term than some of their peers.

Until then, Smith & Co, provide enough singalong moments to support the lyric that "now is not the time to lose your voice".

Harry Guerin

Tracklisting: Signal and Sign - Apply Some Pressure - Graffiti - Postcard of Painting - Going Missing - I Want You to Stay -Limassol - The Coast is Always Changing - The Night I Lost My Head - Once, A Glimpse - Now I'm All Over the Shop - Acrobat - Kiss You Better