Pitchfork

Maritime still trade in smooth, polite indie pop/rock, so don't expect more than that, but the new material is also unrepentant and finely executed, just like last time around. "For Science Fiction" loses some the understatement that classed-up the band's terrific carreer 180, the 2006 album We, The Vehicles, though it retains a bit of bite-- a nibble, really. Save for a few quirky analog-aping keyboard lines, not a sound's wasted, with lumbering fuzz bass tugging at a simple chord change (this kind of thing would have been beneath departed Maritime member and former D-Plan heartthrob Eric Axelson, but it works nonetheless). Davey von Bohlen's melody bobs and weaves around the guitar-less verses, and I've never heard the lyric "freaks come out at night" sound quite so innocuous. But this one's all about the chorus, coming on so strong it takes a few listens to find out how sweet it is, with reaching, swooning vocals that cement von Bolen as the star here. If the third album's as sharp as this, then we can finally stop endorsing his singing as "not whiny."

MP3:> Maritime: "For Science Fiction"
[From Heresy and the Hotel Choir; due 10/16/07 on Flameshovel]