If you’re going through an emotional trauma with a woman right now, then perhaps ‘Books From Boxes’ will strike a chord - it’s certainly one of the soppier, more heart-laid-bare moments on* Maximo Park*’s latest album, Our Earthly Pleasures. A gentle, tuneful ramble, in contrast to the angular assault of previous single ‘Our Velocity’, ‘Books From Boxes’ unveils a maturity about Maximo Park’s current writing: here the drama unfolds slowly and sensitively rather than slapping you across the cheeks.

What’s more, while Paul Smith’s lyrics on Our Earthly Pleasures are generally childish, desperately trying to be deep and failing miserably, there’s a subtlety at work on this track that does him credit (even if no one really owns a Polaroid camera anymore, let alone “scatters” the prints around the place). Lines such as “you have to leave, I appreciate that / But I hate when conversation slips out of our grasp” capture something of the misery of break-ups without laying it all out on a plate. The result is a song that feels more genuine than most of Maximo Park’s other work, with restrained lyrics matching restrained music and carrying the bleak message home rather majestically.

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