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|  | Artist: Midlake
Label: Co-operative Music
Category: Digital Music Album
Buy New: £5.49
as of 30/7/2010 14:50 BST details
Seller: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 1366
Genre: alternative-music
Media: MP3 Download
Running Time: 2512 Minutes
ASIN: B003542NQC
Publication Date: February 1, 2010
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 45
 an epitaph for Man February 12, 2010
Mr. D. R. Wall (Tokyo)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mournful, ponderous, 'samey'. That's how you could describe this album. I've heard people use the same words to describe Allegri's choral music. This is just the knee-jerk reaction of thrillseekers demanding an overblown emotional rollercoaster to satisfy them. No wonder the reviewer who designated it as driving music found it disappointing. The Courage of Others asks us to give ourselves over to it entirely, and as such it is completely out of step with the click-and-consume lifestyle accessory music culture. No songs jump out at us, we are not humming along by the second listen.
But clear your schedule, lie back and listen to the album in its entirety and it will take you to and beyond the non-industrial lands of The Trials of Van Occupanther. There are 'gatherings round the fire' in 'Fortune', which feels unfinished at only two minutes and leaves us both grateful and yearning for more. 'Most of the day light filled my mind, quiet was I/ and I was held away from evil that spoke my name' takes us to that peaceful place that Midlake can conjure, but the melodies are always reminiscent of 'ponderous' sacred music, down to the musical turns (half-note flourishes around the cadences). No, it doesn't have the highs of 'Trials..' but it is too simple to simply call it 'mournful'. The carefully crafted dissonance of the lofty ideals and the subdued tone create the depth of feeling and beauty of this music.
I'll admit the first time I listened to it, I was on the bus to work and didn't feel I was getting my morning musical hit. These songs don't aim for the main vein, they are difficult to absorb and full of contradictions. In 'The Core of Nature', 'I will train my feet/ To go on with the joy/ The joy that I have yet to reach' doesn't make sense, but that's what makes this work so compelling. There is both courage and despair in being unable to reach the core, with pastoral happiness and peace always apparent yet out of reach. A dark February was the perfect time to release this album, as hibernation with the promise of spring is transposed to another level of a new world beyond the winter of the soul and the alienating effect of capitalism. Yes, the tone is inconsistent - merchant ships search for new lands in 'Winter Dies', but then 'Small mountain' charts a total retreat from participation in this survivalism. 'I with my life have gone/away from this land of gold'. There is a glimmer of hope, overshadowed by doubt, that any continuation of the human race can only result in more colonisation and capitalisation.
This album may not have those 'standout tracks' to make it radio friendly, and the power of its message will probably be overlooked. Which is a shame, because it is a tale of the human condition finely told, and it can guide you if you can just take yourself out of the modern world for a moment and listen.
 a (very) slow burner February 12, 2010
M. Stevens (Bath)
I loved, and I mean REALLY loved The Trials Of Van Occupanther, so bought this album in eager anticipation (even though it had had some very poor pre-release reviews - although admittedly had also had a number of very good ones), put it on, and time passed....slowly. The first two tracks are indeed lovely, but then the rest of the album just floats on by.
It's not a bad album, just one that never really seems to get going, and I have tried to listen to it on a daily basis, whilst also playing twice on a 300 mile round trip in the car with the phone off. It still has yet to grab my attention. Others have said in reviews here, it sounds like one track...that is the best way to describe it...one very long track. Perhaps it needs a listen in the middle of the night......? However, with a weeks worth of listening the shelf is calling, and I cannot see my hand been drawn back to its position to put it on again in the near future.
They have done better, and hope there is more to come, but I cannot understand what the glowing reviews see that is so glowing! (But bought Teen Dream on the same day, and find that a far more rewarding listen!)
Update: spent a Sunday afternoon listening....and its growing!
Fine return for The Moody Blues... February 10, 2010
Mr. M. Purdy (Manchester, England)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
A decade in to the 21st Century and here we are embracing/grappling with political, economic and technological change. Thankfully, there are some things that you can always rely on, like a reunion at the Royal Albert Hall by those hardy perennials The Moody Blues.
So, imagine my surprise when a friend told me that they had put a new album out - that harped back to their peak period in the late Sixties/early Seventies - under a pseudonym. Better still, the ever-gullible public and music press had lapped it up - embracing it as some kind of post-modern take on the earthy ('real'?) values of ye-olde British folk by a group of Americans. Hilarious! It just shows you what can be achieved if you market things the right way.
Okay, there's no 'Knights In White Satin' on this album, but it does have a genuine feel of continuety that manages to capture something of the best of both a bygone era and that of the new. Think of it as a trimmed beard (21st century) rather than the by now far less fashionable full shaggy mammoth (so 20th century don't y'know).
Now, what can we do about relaunching the career of Clannad? And who are Espers trying to kid?
Very good follow up - but with a different "feel" - to Van Occupanther February 10, 2010
alextorres (Near Bristol, UK)
"The Courage of Others" may not live up to "The Trials of Van Occupanther"'s exacting high standard, but it is nevertheless a fine album and, also, much better than the band's debut, "Bamnan and Silvercock".
The pace, as other reviewers have pointed out, is consistently slow - there's nothing with the zest of "Roscoe" or "Young Bride" from the Van Occupanther album - but, for all that, the music is also consistently beautiful. In terms of consistency, it's probably stronger than Van Occupanther, and I think what people are finding is that for an album of this nature and tempo, it takes many listens for the music to really sink in. Some of the flute playing and its integration into teh music is an absolute delight!
So, "The Courage of Others" is an album that sees Midlake move deftly and definitively into that folk-rock with-an-American-West-Coast-feel territory; it's a development form their previous album but the strength of the music is such that it will find many admirers amongst its fans, in particular those willing to give the album some time.
 very disappointing February 10, 2010
Z (Ireland)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
First 2 tracks - Acts of Man and Winter Dies are lovely. Really nice songs. The rest isn't really worth buying. Sorry everyone, sorry midlake. It doesn't even APPROACH van occupanther. Again, 1st 2 tracks are worth buying, the rest are very boring. Land of nod stuff.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 45
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