Newcastle indie rock band Maximo Park have announced their eighth studio album ‘Stream of Life’.
Along with the announcement they have also shared the lead single “Your Own Worst Enemy“. The 11-track record will arrive on September 27 via Lower Third. Pre-order it here.
For Stream of Life the band linked up once again with Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective), Grammy-winning producer of 2021’s near-chart-topping, pandemic-era tour de force Nature Always Wins. The record finds them in perhaps the most reflective state they’ve been in. Lead singer Paul Smith, this most lit-pop of lyric writers, took the album title from a short story by Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, inspired by both its stream of consciousness style and the way it prompts reflection on the inner mechanisms of people’s minds. It begs the question of why they do the things that they do, even when they can seem counterintuitive to the outsider. There’s an inner flow to every individual – a stream of life.
Both form and concept bleed satisfyingly into how Stream of Life itself was created – recorded quickly, making fast decisions, not overly-editing oneself – and more specifically how ‘Your Own Worst Enemy’ becomes a study in deception. It considers the things we conceal from ourselves, and others, in order to maintain some inner equilibrium.
Commenting on the album, lead singer Paul Smith says:
“We’ve always tried to document the world around us at each stage of our lives while subtly nudging the music forward each time – this record continues that mission. It was great to be back in a studio after recording remotely last time. Working with Ben in Atlanta, and Burke in Byker, was as stimulating as it’s ever been, and I think we captured that energy. Thematically, the record covers passion, politics, and privilege amongst other topics.”
Continuing about the single he says:
“’Your Own Worst Enemy’ has a different feel to anything we’ve done before – loose and lean, yet still rocking! It’s about that horrible feeling where you suddenly realise you’ve made a familiar error, and also the lies we tell each other on a daily basis to avoid confrontation or turmoil.”
Check out “Your Own Worst Enemy” below, followed by the album’s artwork and tracklist.
Maximo Park ‘Stream of Life’ Tracklist:
- Your Own Worst Enemy
- Favourite Songs
- Dormant ‘Til Explosion (Feat. Vanessa Briscoe Hay)
- The End Can Be As Good As The Start
- Armchair View
- Quiz Show Club
- Stream Of Life
- Doppelgänger Eyes
- I Knew You’d Say That
- The Path I Chose
- No Such Thing As A Society
Press shot credit: Moja
