Paul Smith - Margins

When Maxïmo Park frontman Paul Smith told his bandmates that he was going to release an album of his own compositions, alarm bells must have started ringing in their heads. Should they see this as the beginning of the end and start applying for jobs in the local supermarkets? Not according to Smith. “I’m not ‘going solo,’” his press release insists. “It’s not like George Michael leaving Wham.” Rather, Margins is a way for the singer to release a collection of songs he had written that didn’t really fit in with the breakneck, rallying anthems of Maxïmo Park.

Produced by Matinee Orchestra’s Andy Hodson, and featuring occasional bass from Field Music’s David Brewis, Margins is an intimate affair. Opener North Atlantic Drift doesn’t sound a million miles from Maxïmo Park but, while there are signs of Smith’s day job scattered throughout - the intelligent lyrics, and tasty hooks - generally, the feel is far less hectic, and more melancholic and ruminative. While You’re In The Bath is a good example of this. Written in an Australian hotel room four years ago, the song is stripped back, with just Smith’s fragile voice and a single guitar.

The problem with Margins is that, while the minimalist numbers are lovely and perhaps even a better vehicle for Smith’s poetic lyrics than the relentlessly-paced Maxïmo Park songs, there just aren’t enough of them. Too often, the songs sit in the dull middle ground between being interestingly pared-back and jauntily upbeat. There are probably enough moments of delicate beauty here to make Margins an interesting experiment, it’s just a genuine shame there aren’t more of them.