The Youth Choir

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="085aaaa0.png" border=0 width="170" height="170" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Commandments"><U>The Commandments</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermons"><U>Sermons</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reviews and Rant"><U>Reviews and Rant</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blasts from the Past"><U>Blasts from the Past</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Desert Island Discs"><U>Desert Island Discs</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Interviews"><U>Interviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books and Movies"><U>Books and Movies</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Miscellaneous Witnessing"><U>Miscellaneous Witnessing</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mailbag"><U>Mailbag</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Holy Documents"><U>Holy Documents</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Me"><U>Contact Me</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Confessional"><U>The Confessional</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" >THE FIRST CHURCH OF HOLY ROCK  AND ROLL</FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE FIRST CHURCH OF HOLY ROCK AND ROLL"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> The Youth Choir</div> <div> This page is devoted to high school kids who dig music and like writing about it. Enjoy--and rejoice for the future.</div> <bR> <div> A Certain Trigger  <A NAME="maximo_park"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> Review by Anne Shifley</div> <bR> <div>      Forget about teens shuffling down hallways with heads bent low and writing moody diary entries--youths will find their teenage woes vindicated in the new wave, post-punk influenced sound of Maxïmo Park's 2005 debut album, <I>A Certain Trigger</I>.  <I>A Certain Trigger</I>, from Warp Records, boasts a compilation of intelligent, energetic, and sometimes humorous lyrics that chase away the troubles of the young--most often characterized as unsuccessful attempts at love and the inability to escape their hometown roots.  </div> <div>      </div> <div> Maxïmo Park is relatively new to the music scene, having formed in 2003.  Singer Paul Smith, guitarist Duncan Lloyd, bassist Archis Tiku, keyboardist Lukas Wooller, and drummer Tom English hail from Newcastle Upon Tyne, England and allow their post-punk and new wave influences, such as XTC and The Smiths. Maxïmo Park snuck onto the music scene when their single “Apply Some Pressure” made the U.K.'s Top Twenty in early 2005.  </div> <bR> <div> As soon as I had allowed <I>A Certain Trigger</I> to run its musical cycle a few times, I found their catchy harmonies and instrumentals to be glued in my mind (but not in the obnoxious, I-want-to-kill-myself way reminiscent of a few too many plays of Bobby McFerrin's “Don't Worry, Be Happy”). Maxïmo Park's lyrics kick back to universal teen themes of stunted love and immobility that I found myself drawn into.  The lyrics of “Graffiti” are especially powerful in expressing the longing for of a lost romance, but also hint at some of the melodrama concealed within the album in its lines, “I sleep with my hands across my chest/and I dream of you with someone else/I feed my body with things that I don't need/until I sink to the bottom.”  A song just waiting to be proclaimed as the teen anthem is “The Coast Is Always Changing”, which declares “I am young and I am lost/every sentence has its cost/I am young and I am lost/you react to my riposte.” Simply stated, <I>A Certain Trigger </I>consistently provides songs with catchy melodies and lyrics you just can't help but sing along to.  </div> <bR> <div> But let's be honest with ourselves-while <I>A Certain Trigger </I>is definitely a fun, energetic album perfect for the perturbed, post-puberty members of society, no limits have been tested. Maxïmo Park's drawling vocals, electronic keyboard sound, and twanking guitars run parallel to other alternative/punk artists, such as Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery, and Bloc Party.  Also, I couldn't help but chuckle at the excessively dramatic anguish and reflection found in “Acrobat”.  The mood of the album takes a plunge in this song.  Over pulsing drums and lightly crashing guitars, vocalist Paul Smith laments “I am not an acrobat/I cannot perform these tricks for you/losing all my balance/falling from a wire made for you”, and then-“the sky is often used as a metaphor/I suppose its because its so big and expansive.”  “Acrobat” sounds more like a bad early-nineties ballad than anything else, but I'm willing to overlook such a disappointment when I recall there are twelve other tracks that impressed me. </div> <bR> <div> Maxïmo Park's debut album, <I>A Certain Trigger</I>, provides a great mix of witty, lively tracks.  Despite occasional regression into excessively dramatic and solemn moments, <I>A Certain Trigger</I> is an energetic unveiling in the American music scene for Maxïmo Park and is ideal listening for the average angsty adolescent.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>