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Midlake are fine conveyors of the “man in the woods” setting, a sound
that’s defined their music from 2006’s ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’ and evidently remains in their latest offering. Here, collecting wood and sitting by the fire (themes concurrent in their previous record) is replaced by a great sense of dread, fear and self-doubt, the most human of feelings being dramatised in the most natural setting. Most, if not all of ‘The Courage of Others’ feels like the welling back of tears, the songs just seem to release that feeling of sadness being fought with a determination at not showing how delicate you’re really feeling. These are songs about grown men crying, grown men feeling obsolete, useless and contaminated with fear.
This is a sharp turn in Midlake’s output when you consider how un-emotional a record ‘…Van Occupanther’ was. For all its merits, what truly made it so wondrous was this sense of portrayal of a world you couldn’t step into. Now, you’re invited into it, with lyrics moving quite significantly to the first person narrative, plugging in at all emotions and releasing them from the perspective of someone you know instead of a wood-folk stranger.
Tim Smith is the vulnerable figure; admitting “I used to feel things around me stir” in ‘Winter Dies’, declaring “ I will train my feet to go on with the joy, A joy I have yet to reach” in ‘Core of Nature’, and in ‘Bring Down’, a song that brings a whole new level of morbidness into the album, sees Smith facing the fact; “Now the joy has burned out and it’s gone. But I don’t know where…”
This is far closer to the bone than simple melancholy. On Radiohead’s tour film, ‘Meeting People Is Easy’, one scene shows a news reporter becoming hysterical at how depressing ‘No Surprises’- a hit single at the time - happened to be. Much of ‘The Courage Of Others’ would have provoked the same reaction at the time. Many a listener will keep themselves at a distance from music like this. Why? Because it genuinely does bog you down and leaves you with the ultimate feeling of emptiness. Like ‘…Van Occupanther’, it displays an entirely different scope of sound, this-time heavily influenced by English-folk, Steel Eye Span and companions.
Raw emotions like these, when lumped in with simple acoustic folk songs, sometimes allow for apathy, a routine. Midlake shy away from this; incorporating rawer edge to their sound than on previous works, with bone-dry electric guitar and absolutely no Fleet Foxes-yodelling. Although a certain tone of voice and a mild minor key can be easily applied into the likes of ‘Bring Down’ and ‘Small Mountain’, more often than not, the band remain ruthlessly inventive and totally aware of their surroundings. ‘The Courage of Others’ doesn’t muster up the kind of magic its predecessor managed to, but it’s in such a separate sphere to nearly every folk-bred record, it’s difficult to compare the two.
