I was pretty excited when I heard that there was a new Midlake album out. I fell in love with the band back in 2006 with their The Trials of Van Occupanther, an album with no duds that I can think of, and that still warrants pretty regular listening. After that came 2010’s The Courage of Others, another pretty golden collection of songs, a little gloomier than Trials, but great nonetheless. And now the band are back with Antiphon, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
If you like the band by now, then I’d say you’re going to like this album. It took me a couple of listens to get completely immersed, but once I was, there was no going back. Opening with the title track ‘Antiphon’, the band are off to a good start, with a little less folk to start with than in their previous albums. This track has real drive and carries on the ’70s sound and dense harmonies that the band seems to favour.
There have been some changes in the band’s line-up over the last couple of years, maybe most notably the departure of lead vocalist Tim Smith, who left to pursue other projects. But guitarist Eric Pulido takes the reigns really well, with the band’s sound remaining familiar but still really fresh and new.
One of the real strengths of the band, as I see it, is their ability to make really solid albums, where everything works together so well that you can’t help but listen to the whole album every single time. This is definitely at play in Antiphon, the tracks all merge so well into one another while still managing to have a lot of diversity. I guess this makes it kind of hard to pick out some of my favourite tracks, but I did really enjoy the super laidback groove of ‘It’s Going Down’, the relaxed syncopation of ‘Corruption’, and ‘Ages’ had me repeatedly turning up the volume on my headphones so that I could try and catch everything that was going on in the mix.
The final track on the album, ‘Provider Reprise’, is completely perfect and just made me want to start listening to the album all over again. I’m sounding like quite the wanker, but it really just made me want to sit down, close my eyes, and listen without any interruptions. So that is how I will recommend it, make sure you set aside the time to give the whole album a good listen, because if you’re into some Midlake, then that’s gonna be the best way to experience their new one. Splitting it up into parts just isn’t going to be as satisfying, at least for the first go ‘round.
The album is released in Australia this Friday November 1, so definitely keep your eye out for it if you want to relax into some cool, interesting tunes.
9/10
Reviewer: Louisa Bulley