Midlake are back unexpectedly with their fifth album and their first since 2013 when pretty much everybody had assumed they had gone their separate ways once and for all. You would probably find it difficult to make a case that For The Sake of Bethel Woods, (for that's the name of the record concerned), is a necessary one. It certainly doesn't sound like a 2022 record. But Midlake never really sounded like a contemporary band even when they were operating back then.
They sounded like a band making a splash any year between 1969 and 1974 instead. Or else the Middle Ages. Tim Smith, one of their core members, (though he's not involved with them anymore), famously said that he would rather write a song like one of Jethro Tull's than one that sounded like Radiohead. That sounds like a slightly odd thing to say to me but I had an elderly brother who put me off stuff like that but I realise there are plenty around, and not just elderly ones who hark back to these years as a golden age. Just listen to Garcia Peoples.
So, For The Sake of Bethel Woods is much closer to Traffic and Wishbone Ash than it is to Arcade Fire. It kind of sounds like Traffic, Moody Blues or Wishbone Ash with Gerry Rafferty on lead vocals and I certainy don't mind that. I have my Saxondale moments. The band are clearly exceptionally good musicians and if this leads to moments where they come across as rather mannered and flashy, there are also some songs that are incredibly powerful in an Autumnal bringing in the sheaves kind of way.They take you right out of your way of living and into theirs.
So I'll go with this. If I'm not entirely sure why there are bands like Fleet Foxes and Midlake in the 21st century, I'm perfectly happy that there are. I'll be back to this and I would have thought it will probably grow on me with every play.
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