“I was worried that some of the songs would be irrelevant by the time the record came out,” said Maxïmo Park frontman Paul Smith. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

The band returns this year with their sixth studio album, Risk to Exist, and will bring its collection of pop songs about anger, hope, resistance and empathy to the Princess Pavilion in Falmouth on Wednesday, May 17.

Maxïmo Park began writing Risk to Exist back in 2015, and the albuk plays on current political concerns to ally personal passions and indie pop sensibilities.

Risk to Exist marks a musical progression for the band, with the addition of a horn section and new bassist Paul Rafferty from Hot Club de Paris, and every song combines intelligence, emotional conviction and visceral energy. The stirring title track was prompted by the Foreign Office’s shocking decision in 2014 to stop supporting search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean because, it claimed, saving lives encouraged illegal migration - with all profits from the single going to the charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), a Malta-based foundation that helps migrants and refugees in peril at sea. “Where’s your empathy?” Smith sings,as his is plain to see.

Smith’s literate lyrics look beyond the news to examine present strife via some unexpected sources, but the thread that ties all the songs together is compassion and the importance of human connection.

To read an interview from when the Packet spoke to Paul Smith, search for Maximo Park at thepacket.co.uk

For information and tickets go to bettervenues.org.uk/upcoming-events/detail/2017/05/17/default-calendar/maximo-park