Our Velocity

by

Maxïmo Park

Edit

"Our Velocity" is the first single from Our Earthly Pleasures, the second album from the band, Maxïmo Park. The single was released two weeks prior to the release of the album, on 19 March 2007.

The song, according to singer Paul Smith, was inspired by a piece of photography by Anglo-French artist Mathieu Ógan, of a twisting motorway. The band's website stated "Our Velocity is a broadly political song about somebody fighting for their country and wondering just how they found themselves in such a godforsaken position in the first place."

The video of the song features the band being multiplied in a white room while playing the song. It was directed by Nima Nourizadeh.

The song has been highly regarded and in VH1's "50 Greatest Songs of 2007 So Far" it placed at number 1.

The song became the band's first UK Top 10 single, reaching #9 on 25 March 2007 on the UK Singles Chart and #1 on the UK indie chart within a week of its physical release.

In August 2007, a segment of the song was used as the title music for the BBC coverage of the Reading and Leeds Festival.

Teletext's music page Planet Sound named "Our Velocity" as the best single of 2007.

The song features in the 2007 video game Project Gotham Racing 4. The song was featured on Hollyoaks in 2007.