Park hit the mark with a softer punch

So, the return of the class of 2005 is almost complete. We've already seen The Futureheads crash and burn, Bloc Party infuriate, the Kaiser Chiefs consolidate and Arcade Fire mesmerise with their respective second albums. Still to come are Hard-Fi, a surprise package, but what of that year's most unexpected success, Newcastle's Maximo Park?

At the start of 2005 Maximo Park were not much rated. Most of the talk surrounded their signing to Warp, a label more renowned for releasing leftfield electronica - in particular, pop's very own childcatcher, Aphex Twin - than arty guitar rock. Any other interest was focused on lead singer Paul Smith's strange Bobby Charlton homage comb-over haircut.

But then the music started to leak out. Literate, funny, moving guitar music with big-bottomed tunes.

Their debut album, A Certain Trigger, was the pick of 2005, along with Hard-Fi's brasher, more hedonistic Stars Of CCTV. Less po-faced than Bloc Party, smarter than Kaiser Chiefs, and more melodic than Arcade Fire, A Certain Trigger helped make intelligent pop music fashionable again.

The core of Maximo Park's appeal still lies in Smith's ability to write about everyday life and love with real elegance, insight and humour. Nosebleed, for example, features the line "Did we go too far? Is that why your nose is bleeding?", a simple line that manages to tell you a huge amount about the song's protagonists in just a few words.

The track serves as a neat summary of all that is good about Our Earthly Pleasures and all that differentiates it from A Certain Trigger. Whereas the latter mostly lived on its nerves, all bursting synapses and switchback tunes, Nosebleed and, by extension, Our Earthly Pleasures, is a little more relaxed, content to cruise along at 80mph rather than hurtle at 100mph. It's still not exactly chill-out music but there's space to luxuriate in.

The very first track, Girls Who Play Guitars, signals this adroitly with a buzzing drone that resonates in the gaps between the chunky main chords, while Books From Boxes features a sinuous, graceful chorus.

Russian Literature (not a song title you'd expect to see on X Factor winner Leona Lewis's debut album) manages to be both explosive and grand while also threading in snatches of Sparks and Pixies references. It's a formidable achievement but even that is bettered by the album closer Parisian Skies, an exquisite tribute to doomed romance that simply thrums with regret.

On the downside, Maximo Park's decision to lift the pedal from the metal dictates that Our Earthly Pleasures is a less immediately visceral thrill than A Certain Trigger and, after listening to it a half-dozen times there still seems to be a mid-album lull, but for all that it's another triumph for these Geordie boys.