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UncutAt its best, Margins is unobtrusively impressive. [Nov 2010, p.101]
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This is, after all, the sound of Paul Smith freed of his band and label obligations - but the fact remains that Margins, while an interesting insight into a character, is a frustratingly hit-and-miss affair.
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Dec 22, 2010But ultimately, Margins feels like an album of songs that needed to be exorcised more than shared.
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It is laudable for Smith to try and eschew the eccentric frontman label in favour of something more cerebral. But in attempting to reach for the moon, he ends up merely stalled and snagged, dangling awkwardly from an unwieldy scaffold of clumsy platitude and hollow couplets.
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Margins struggles to rise above the ordinary. Fans of Maxïmo Park will not be disappointed, but it's frankly hard to see anyone else caring very much.
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Q MagazineIt's warm and heartfelt, but the scaled down production allows his grating Treesside vocals dominate to distraction. [Nov 2010, p.114]
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Margins though, is mawkish and self-indulgent to the last, a wet weekend of a record, drably trudging through inelegant, wannabe-Mike Leigh vignettes into Smith's failed relationship.