''Nature Always Wins'' is the seventh

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by English

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Maxïmo Park Maxïmo Park are an English alternative rock band formed in 2000 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band currently consists of Paul Smith (English singer), Paul Smith (lead vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar, bass, keyboards, backing vocals), and Tom Engli ...

. It was released on 26 February 2021 and reached number two on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, putting it level with '' Our Earthly Pleasures'' (2007) as the band's highest-charting album. The album was received positively by music critics, who compared it favourably to the band's early albums.

Composition

The album was produced during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and was Maxïmo Park's first as a trio, following the departure of keyboardist Lukas Wooller. Wooller had moved to Australia with his wife. The album was produced by

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

-based producer Ben H. Allen, who collaborated remotely with the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

-based band during the pandemic. The track "Why Must a Building Burn" attacks the government response to the

Grenfell Tower Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in West London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. Most of the tower was destroyed in a Grenfell T ...

fire in 2017. The song also references the band's former merchandiser Nick Alexander, who was killed in the Bataclan concert hall attack. Tracks including "Versions of You", "Ardour" and "Baby, Sleep" were inspired by frontman

Paul Smith Paul Smith is the name of: Music * Paul Smith (composer) (1906–1985), American film music composer * Paul Smith (pianist) (1922–2013), Los Angeles jazz pianist * Paul Smith (English singer) (born 1979), vocalist and songwriter of British in ...

's new responsibilities as a father. "Ardour", a song about parenting, features

Pauline Murray Pauline Murray (born 8 March 1958) is best known as the lead vocalist of the punk rock band Penetration, originally formed in 1976. Early years Pauline Murray was born on 8 March 1958 in Waterhouses, County Durham, England, and her parents later ...

of the

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band Penetration. Maxïmo Park had long been friends with Murray, having rehearsed in a studio named Polestar that she owns. Smith said that the name of the album came from a line of the final track "Child of the Flatlands", about nature slowly reclaiming the outskirts of a city. He said that recent natural disasters had taught him that humanity is at the mercy of nature.

Commercial performance

After its release, the album topped the

in its midweek update, at around 1,500 copies more than

Alice Cooper Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...

's ''

Detroit Stories ''Detroit Stories'' is the twenty-first solo and twenty-eighth overall studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. The album was released on February 26, 2021, by Earmusic. It crowned ''Billboards Top Album Sales chart (dated March 3, 2 ...

'', while Architects' ''

For Those That Wish to Exist ''For Those That Wish to Exist'' is the ninth studio album by British metalcore band Architects. It was released on 26 February 2021 through Epitaph Records. The album was produced by Dan Searle and Josh Middleton. Composition Style and themes ...

'' was at number three. By the time the chart was published, Architects beat Maxïmo Park to number one by 550 copies. ''Nature Always Wins'' was the band's first top-10 entry since ''Too Much Information'' in 2014, and joint with '' Our Earthly Pleasures'' (2007) as the band's top-charting album. ''Nature Always Wins'' spent no more weeks in the chart. The album did top the

UK Independent Albums Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the r ...

. It also charted for one week on Germany's

GfK Entertainment charts The GfK Entertainment charts are the official charts for music, home video, and video games in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on be ...

, at number 27.

Critical reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gives ''Nature Always Wins'' a score of 80/100 based on ten reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s, all of which were positive. It is the band's highest-rated album on Metacritic, ahead of debut '' A Certain Trigger'', which averaged 75/100 from 19 professional reviews in 2005. Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

noted that the album moved away from the political themes of the band's three previous albums, instead having philosophical lyrics about relationships, similar to ''A Certain Trigger''. Damian Jones of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' praised the album, though he found "Why Must a Building Burn" to be "brutal but jarringly upbeat". On No Ripcord, reviewer Juan Egardo Rodríguez considered it to be the band's best album since ''

Quicken the Heart ''Quicken the Heart'' is the third studio album by Maxïmo Park. It was released on 11 May 2009. It debuted at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. Album information The album is available on vinyl, regular CD, special edition CD and DVD pack and digi ...

'' in 2009, and highlighted the track "All of Me", which he compared to "polar opposites"

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Robin Murray of ''Clash'' called it Maxïmo Park's best album for a decade, and noted how its political content was less overt than the preceding '' Risk to Exist'' (2017).

Track listing

Personnel

Maxïmo Park * Paul Smith – lead vocals,

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, field recording * Duncan Lloyd – bass, guitar, piano, synthesizer, background vocals, engineering, field recording * Tom English – drums, percussion, field recording Additional personnel * Ben H. Allen III –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, mixing, bass, guitar, percussion,

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

, synthesizer *

Heba Kadry Heba Kadry is an Egyptian mastering engineer who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for her work with Björk, Beach House, Slowdive, The Mars Volta, Neon Indian, Wooden Shjips, Lightning Bolt, White Hills, Alex G, Futur ...

– mastering * Alex Blamire – engineering * Annie Leeth – engineering * Ben Etter – engineering * Robert Whiteley – engineering * Tom Etherington – drums, design * Em Cole – band photo * Laura Lancaster – cover painting * John David Lawson – photography, painting photography

Charts

References

{{Maxïmo Park Maxïmo Park albums 2021 albums Albums produced by Ben H. Allen