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Feb 11, 2014 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

With 2012’s The National Health, Maxïmo Park reclaimed the mystique of what made their early work so brilliant—the angular guitars, the witty lyrics, the propulsive motorik drive. Although the opening track to the band’s fifth album, “Give, Get, Take” pulses with energy and tension, ending with the question, “Where do we go from here?” Too Much Information is, at best, a hard left turn from The National Health, and, at worst, a letdown.

Immediately following “Give, Get, Take” is “Brain Cells,” a bleak, electronic, minimalist track that is the antithesis of what made the band’s last album so great. “Lydia, the Ink Will Never Dry” brings the first big chorus melody of the album at track four but not much else. “My Bloody Mind” rides along on punk-ish verse and melodic chorus but strangely becomes touchingly piano-driven at the track’s end. Even the best songs here—the driving “Her Name Was Audre” and the emotionally intense “Drinking Martinis”—sound like outtakes from The National Health. Absent are the exceptional lyrical turns of the best Maxïmo Park songs. Sure, the electronic bent is a left turn, but this does not ultimately mean Too Much Information should be relegated to bargain bin status. The problem is that there is too little to dig into, to revel in. In many senses, Too Much Information is ultimately not enough. (www.maximopark.com)

Author rating: 4/10