Indie-rock legends Maxïmo Park have today announced their eighth studio album, Stream Of Life, which will be released on 27 September.
The album, on Lower Third, is preceded by the release of its lead single Your Own Worst Enemy, which follows on the heels of March’s first new track in three years, Favourite Songs.
Stream Of Life sees the Newcastle band link up again with Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective), the Grammy-winning producer of 2021’s No 2-charting, pandemic-era album Nature Always Wins, as well as producer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin, Sports Team).
It’s the first time they’ve all been together in a studio to make an album since 2016, and finds the band in perhaps the most reflective state they’ve been in.
Lead singer Paul Smith took the album title from a short story by Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, inspired by 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 counter-intuitive to the outsider. There’s an inner flow to every individual – a stream of life.
Smith 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.”
He adds of the album: “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.”
Pre-order Stream Of Life HERE.
Maxïmo Park will be heading out on a headline UK/EU tour to support the release of Stream Of Life, with several UK dates already sold out. Tickets for remaining dates are on sale now HERE.
