Paul Smith - Margins

Taking a break from fronting Maximo Park after three solid albums of jaunty indie-pop, singer Paul Smith releases his debut solo record, 'Margins'. Whilst Smith's trademark Geordie accent and clever lyrical phrasings are present and correct throughout, he does explore the musical boundaries without the constraints of his band mates and in the main it works. Current single 'Our Lady of Lourdes' is a glorious hypnotic swirl of a number and 'I Drew You Sleeping' is the kind of breezy pop song that Badly Drawn Boy excels in. Elsewhere there is a definite hint of Candidate in the likes of 'Improvement/Denouncement', 'I Wonder If' and 'While You're in the Bath' and even a dash of underground Manchester duo the Montgolfier Brothers in the fine 'Alone, I Would Have Dropped'. Smith doesn't completely turn his back on songs in a Maximo Park style either with opening track 'North Atlantic Drift', 'Strange Friction' and 'Dare Not Dive' all being up-tempo enough to grace the band's albums, if not quite as instant as previous hits 'Graffiti' or 'Going Missing'. In 'Margin Smith has created an album that is unlikely to alienate any of his old fans, but may well bring him some new ones, which, in these fickle times, is not as straightforward as it sounds.

Track Listing:-

1 North Atlantic Drift
2 The Crush And The Shatter
3 Improvement/Denouement
4 Strange Fiction
5 While You're In The Bath
6 This Heat
7 I Drew You Sleeping
8 Alone, I Would've Dropped
9 Dare Not Dive
10 I Wonder If
11 Our Lady Of Lourdes
12 The Tingles
13 Pinball