The other mis-step is the epic seven minute closing track 'Parellel lines', which sees Witter mercifuly drowned out with explosive distortion, but only after an agonizing build-up which puts the vocals into sharp focus over quiet, clean guitars. The lovely mid-album acoustic country strum of 'Out By My Side', for example, is pretty much murdered by Witter's out-of-key vocal line, which sounds like he's going through puberty. That's a harsh statement, but the fact is that the only two weak tracks on the entire LP both stem from Witter-related problems. So much so, in fact, that any faults that this album suffers from can all be attributed to Rick Witter, the band's frontman. The man has so much melodic talent that pretty much every note he plays on this album is awesome.
You see, the guitarist of Shed Seven (Paul Banks) is an absolute genius. The album's sound is a very basic but satisfying one, combining The Smiths' jangle pop with scuzzy guitar and sing-along choruses. But more than just being a singles album, 'A Maximum High' also ranks as Shed Seven's best overall record. Most of the band's biggest hits reside here, such as 'Going For Gold', 'On Standy', 'Bully Boy' and 'Getting Better'. 'A Maximum High', Shed Seven's 1996 sophomore LP, showed the band at the peak of it's popularity. That said, Shed Seven was always notable among that group of bands for fusing their Morrissey driven influence with the more popular, 'Laddish' culture promoted by genre leaders like Oasis and Blur. Pretty much any of the Britpop bands that took The Smiths as their main influence. Shed Seven were one of the leaders of the secondary Britpop brigade, which featured the likes of Suede, Gene, Echobelly, Geneva, Dubstar. Review Summary: A catchy, hit stewn guitar-pop album from the Britpop era.
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