Maxïmo Park are a British indie band, from the North East of England. Heavily influenced by the post-punk/New Wave revival of the early 21st Century, they signed to the label Warp Records in the 2000s - also known for releasing songs by famous artists such as Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Battles, !!! and Autechre. They are often compared to The Futureheads and Editors. They have released five studio albums so far - A Certain Trigger, Our Earthly Pleasures, Quicken The Heart, The National Health and Too Much Information. In addition, they have also released a B-Sides compilation titled Missing Songs and a DVD titled Found On Film. Their most popular song is "Our Velocity" from Our Earthly Pleasures, which has also been featured in many media works, more emblematically appearing in the official soundtrack of Project Gotham Racing 4.
They were formed in 2000, and consist of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), Archis Tiku (Bass), Tom English (Drums) and Lukas Wooler (keyboards).
Their music contains examples of:
- Animated Credits Opening: Mild, rather un-wacky example at the begin of the music video to ''The National Health''
. - Fake-Out Fade-Out: "The Unshockable", with bonus abrupt song ending.
- Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: There is one over the "i", but it doesn't affect pronunciation
- Idiosyncratic Album Naming: Four of five studio albums and the DVD are named after snippets of lyrics from one of the songs within, which form Album Title Drops. note
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: "Did you hear (Say what?) - I've been down to the council today (What did they say?) - they sent me away (No way!) - My word holds no sway (Who's to blame?) - He wore a badge with a name (Oh yeah?) - I guess I couldn't be tamed" ("The National Health"). Also qualifies for Crapsack World.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Paul provides most of, if not all, the backing vocals for the band.
- Surreal Music Video: The official music video for ''Our Velocity'' merges this with Performance Video.
