Maximo Park 'struggled' with new album

Maximo Park have revealed that they struggled to agree on a direction to take for their new album Quicken The Heart.

Frontman Paul Smith admitted that he wanted to experiment with a darker sound than on the group's previous records, but his bandmates rejected the idea.

"I wanted to make a dark record but everybody else wanted an upbeat pop record," he told the Daily Star.

"We all have different tastes. After making two records here, we wanted to get out of the country and expand our horizons. We needed to be taken out of our comfort zone and decided to go to America so our eyes were always open."

The Newcastle band, who paired up with Talking Heads producer Nick Launey on the follow up to 2007's Our Earthly Pleasures, added that making the record was an intimate process.

"What we didn't want to do was a collaborative album with a big producer," Smith said. “It wasn't supposed to come out like a Timbaland album or have Justin Timberlake panting in the background.

"This time we sat down and spoke about the songs. It was more instinctive before but this time we really valued talking through each other's ideas. I feel like a gibbering wreck worrying about what people will think of the new record."

Maximo Park release their new single 'The Kids Are Sick Again' today. Their album Quicken The Heart follows on May 11.