Fleetwood Mac meets Grandaddy meets Radiohead – that's how I tend to describe Midlake's music. However, that might seem quite unfair, because their music wants to be more than just a good mix. And their third album, The Courage of Others, scheduled to be released at the beginning of February, tries to prove that.
The album reminds you even less about their lo-fi roots than the previous one, The Trials of Van Occupanther. Hell, let's forget about nice words. It yells "folk fucking rock" from one hundred miles away. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, you know. But when you have an eleven tracks album composed only of slow tunes, you might get the feeling it's a little bit too much. At a certain point, I, too, got sick of the same dreamy, autumn-rainy-day-like atmosphere – and, as I was reaching the final track, my mind started to yell: That's all?
Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to say that this album is the worst piece of crap they ever released. No; the instrumentals are okay (even if I miss the keyboards, there's nothing really disturbing there – as a matter of fact, at certain points I thought I felt the phantom of Nick Drake coming up from behind, and yeah, this is a praise) and Tim Smith's vocals are as good as ever (please read: really, really good). But no matter how sweet the cake is, if you eat too much, you will get sick for sure. And that's how it is – The Courage of Others stands as a collection of good songs becoming, not bad, but rather boring after more than an audition on the same day.
*photo courtesy of Midlake official site
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