Maximo Park - Nature Always Wins (LP) - Translucent Turquoise Vinyl

Maxïmo Park’s seventh studio album, Nature Always Wins, arrived on 26 February 2021, and it still feels like a savvy reset from a band that knows exactly who they are. The Newcastle trio had become a trio for real by this point, following keyboardist Lukas Wooller’s departure, and they teamed with producer Ben H Allen in Atlanta, a collaborator known for work with Animal Collective and Deerhunter. The sessions took place amid lockdown logistics, so parts travelled across the Atlantic while the band stayed put in the North East. You can hear the clarity that comes from that setup, a crispness that gives Paul Smith’s voice plenty of space and lets Duncan Lloyd’s guitar snap and shimmer against Tom English’s tidy, muscular drumming.

The singles told the story first. “Baby, Sleep” takes the bleary reality of new parenthood and turns it into a taut earworm, all nervous energy and jangling edges. “I Don’t Know What I’m Doing” plays the opposite game, a bright chorus wrapped around everyday doubt, delivered with the kind of conversational phrasing Smith has made his trademark since A Certain Trigger. “All Of Me” is the softest punch, open-hearted and melodic without losing the band’s bite. Then there’s “Child Of The Flatlands,” a slow-blooming piece that traces Smith’s memories of Teesside. It conjures chemical plants and the big sky of the North East, and it sits in the tracklist like a panoramic photo among portraits.

For a record shaped in isolation, it is remarkably direct. Allen’s production favours clean lines and a quick step, which suits Maxïmo Park’s instinct for pace. Guitars cut in diagonals, the bass lines keep everything taut, and English’s drumming tucks in little details that reward repeat listens. Lyrically, Smith leans into the personal but stays plainspoken. Parenthood and responsibility shadow several songs, not as grand statements but as small, daily reckonings, the kind you think about on the bus. “Versions Of You” turns over the future with tenderness rather than fear, the chorus wide enough to welcome anyone who has ever felt time shift under their feet.

Two decades on from the mid‑2000s burst that produced “Apply Some Pressure,” the band still locates that sweet spot where indie guitars and sharp pop instincts meet. They are not trying to recreate the speed of their debut, and they do not need to. Nature Always Wins trades on control, in the best sense, while keeping a spark that feels live. Reviewers heard it too. NME praised the focus and gave the album four stars, a nod to how well these songs land without excess. The Guardian was cooler but still tipped its hat to the band’s craft. Listeners did their bit, sending the record to No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, which is no small feat for a group this far into its run.

Because people still ask how records sound on a turntable, this one plays clean and punchy, with the guitars sitting neatly on top of the rhythm section and Smith’s voice right there in the room. If you are crate‑digging in a Melbourne record store, keep an eye out for Nature Always Wins vinyl, since it pulls together the high‑tempo tracks and the reflective moments in a way that begs for a full‑side listen. And if you are shopping from the couch, you will have no trouble finding Maxïmo Park vinyl through local shops that ship across the country. It is easy to buy Maxïmo Park records online these days, and there is a decent spread of Maxïmo Park albums on vinyl if you want to trace the arc from A Certain Trigger to here. Handy for anyone collecting vinyl records Australia wide.

What endures is the band’s habit of writing about real life without fuss. There is wit in the lines, sure, but it is the empathy that sticks. When Smith sings about fatigue, or uncertainty, or a sudden rush of love, he sounds like the bloke next to you at a gig who has a way with words. That has always been their appeal. Nature Always Wins holds onto that, tightens the screws on the arrangements, and lets the trio format work to their advantage. It is a record that rewards attention, whether you come to it as a long‑timer or you have just picked it up while browsing the Maxïmo Park vinyl section. Either way, it feels like the right band, in the right room, playing songs that will last.