Record #181: Midlake’s ‘The Courage of Others’
The Courage of Others is the third record from Texas’s wintry folk-rock quintet Midlake, and it’s slated to be released in February. Between Midlake’s debut and second records, they revamped their sound pretty substantially, turning to a meticulously arranged style of melodically ambitious ballad that worked quite well for them. They really stuck with that formula, and thus The Courage of Others sounds less like a follow-up to The Trials of Van Occupanther and more like Disc 2 of the same album. I’m still a fan of these beautiful string and woodwind flourishes, picked guitar parts and grand vocal melodies, but there aren’t really any surprises here, and there certainly aren’t any songs that stand out as much as Van Occupanther’s “Young Bride,” “Roscoe” and “Head Home.” That said, Midlake is undoubtedly the type of band that will grow on you given subsequent listens, so I’m going to stick with this one.
