Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

Some music is just good. You can’t easily describe why or how. You can’t pinpoint it to particular trait. It’s simply a given fact. Midlake are just good. Their music is generally slow, mostly soothing and always a pleasure to listen to. It transcends your consciousness, exploring the darkest corners of your mind before suddenly you realise your eyes were closed and 45 minutes has passed. Has anyone else noticed my only ability seems to be excessively talking up bands? But anyway, their sound seems to roam and meander, occasionally entering Shins territory, an always-welcomed feature in my book, but eventually settling under the umbrella of rather ‘haunting’ music. Give these songs a few go-overs before you judge them, there may be some sense in my words after all.

Roscoe – This is the first ‘single’ off this hot new album and rightly so. It really showcases the beautiful vocals that feature throughout.

Young Bride – I really like the way this song eases itself in, slowly picking up the pace in a very soothing manner. But of course an intro would mean nothing without a decent body. Here the vocals almost seem to weave in and out of the solid rhythm produced by the drums and to great effect

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is good and pleasantly different to a lot of the other things you post (as in its not allegretto tempo)
true it is soothing. does the album give off this general vibe?
where are these people from?

Peter said...

yeah, i would definitely say that soothing is the designated theme throughout, a rather mellow album indeed. and in answer to your other question, they are from texas.

Also, I agree that a disproportionate amount of the music i use is rapid in tempo, more rapid than andante but slower than allegro (thank goodness for my macquarie) and it's something i've been trying to rectify as it doesn't reflect my actual tastes. I've also been trying to stop calling every band unique. Feedback helps you see. In fact you've convinced me to post what's probably my favourite slow song. The album's a few years old but it's relatively unknown and that's good enough for me

Anonymous said...

wow, favourite slow song huh
music favourites are always big calls
you should put more things like this on for variety in your variety

Peter said...

notice the 'probably'....i was covering myself. and i shall definitely be making sure there's enough variety in my variety. By the way the aforementioned post will come soon, not next (as you will realise when you read the next post!)

Anonymous said...

im loving the site...living in the cultural/musical timewarp that is france its good to find some stuff that ive not heard of before or ahve never really gotten to know properly.
especially loving this song. is it just me or do they sound a bit like delays?

Peter said...

hey thanks...that's what the internet is for, escaping the restrictions of your geographical location. As for delays, I honestly don't know as I've never heard them before. But I did go and check them out and can kind of see what you mean. I was actually playing Midlake to compare and accidently left it going on loop when i left the room and my grandmother commented that it was 'lovely music' which is really weird. She's in her 80s and the closest thing she gets to music is 2GB. Was that comment a bad thing?

Anonymous said...

im pretty sure that comments from realtives of the older type generations are to be taken badly!! they can only be bad news!...especially if they say that its lovely...that generally means that you can never listen to it again. but thatd be a bit shit cos theyre too good not to be listened to again!