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How do I love Maximo Park? Let me count the ways. I love them musically. I love them lyrically. I love them visually. A lot. In fact, when I went to their web site to learn more about them for this blog, I downloaded one of the band’s pics to use for my desktop wallpaper for a while. The minute I saw it, the sixteen-year-old girl in me for whom the British New Wave of the ‘70s was her salvation just jumped right up and went, “Wheeeee!” They’ve got that whole sexy new wave geek thing down sooooo well. Lead singer Paul Smith even bears a certain resemblance to Jools Holland, the keyboard player for Squeeze, my fave band when I was in high school.

I just love Maximo Park. And I love “A Certain Trigger,” their debut album. My favorite bands are always the ones that are impossible to slot under one particular musical heading and instead dip into a lot of colors from the musical palette. Scoop up a brushful of rock, add a dollop of roll, smudge in some alternative, a little splash of pop, a healthy slash of euro-synth, and spatter on some other stuff to shake it all up. Do that, and you’ve pretty much got “A Certain Trigger.” Highly danceable, great for driving, imminently listenable. And major, major brownie points for Smith, a guy from Northern England, for actually sounding like a guy from Northern England when he sings. I could listen to that accent all day.

There are no two songs on this CD that sound alike, but one after another, they are powerful, hard-pounding, and staggeringly good. And I love the arrangement of the order. The collection starts off terrifically hard-rocking and then gradually moves into a more… Hmm. I don’t want to say “mellow,” because it’s not that. Or “even,” either, because it’s not that. It just moves from hard-driving to...something else...then back to hard-driving again. You leave it feeling strangely both energized and rested.

And the lyrics are fabulous, and filled with wonderful imagery. Smith sings things like, “I still remember how you moved/And I taste your scent upon my lips.” Or how about, “‘Cause nothing works ‘round here/Where cranes collect the sky.” Or “When a long strand of cloud sits just above the horizon/Leaving a strip of clear blue beneath it/It becomes the panorama.” Or my favorite, a lovely, simple sentiment: “And if it comes down to me and him/You know I’d kiss you better…”

It’s just a really, really wonderful CD. And after reading their web site today, I discovered they’ve released a second titled “Our Earthly Pleasures.” Guess what I’ll be doing today?