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|  | Artist: Midlake
Label: Co-operative Music
Category: Digital Music Album
Buy New: £5.49
as of 30/7/2010 14:47 BST details
Seller: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 1266
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 26-30 of 45
Divine follow-up to one of the previous decade's classics February 9, 2010
Mr. J. Milton (Brighton)
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.
 No one noticed that the emperor's wearing nowt? February 9, 2010
Bernard H. Christ (Leeds, UK)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I don't think I've ever been more disappointed by an album in my life. My love for Occupanther knows no bounds. Three years and THIS is the follow up? Yowsers. Written and sung at a funereal pace and seemingly often written in the same key (tracks 2 to 4 are essentially the same minor key groove), Midlake sound bored, tired and disinterested. I know they're musos and they've clearly fretted about every harmony, every percussion track, every solo, but therein lies the problem. They've obsessed the life out of it.
People often compare Midlake to Tusk/Rumours era Fleetwood Mac. Trouble is, the Mac had Nicks, Buckingham and McVie all writing for them and that meant the musical palette of their work was incredibly broad. The Courage of Others is an apt title, because it showcases the band at their most timid and tame. It's an enormous shame, but they're a really talented bunch. I hope they bounce back from this and wake up.
For once, I think Pitchfork got it spot on.
 Music for grown ups February 6, 2010
Ron Dogers - Palace Fan (On the edge of Caterham)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Loved Van O' couldn't really get the Fleetwood etc links tho and love this too - deeper, 1st play thought it was great and then the next few had doubts but now (listening along with some Nick Drake and Richard Thompson) realise just how good it is - but can't really get the English folk/prog links - is it me? Anyway music for grown ups
 I CAN ONLY HOPE THEY'RE RIGHT... February 5, 2010
Jojo Allen (Liverpool)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I put this album on and, after about 5 minutes, forgot I was supposed to be listening to something.
When I checked back in awhile later, it sounded like it was still on the first track.
It's not an unpleasant sound, but the lead singer's voice is not very versatile and they seem to have done every song in the same key with similar harmony structure.
I can only hope that all the reviews saying the album is a 'grower' and how it sounded repetitious at first but, after repeat listens, all was revealed, prove to be accurate.
Maybe it's a failing in my attention span these days but I don't tend to go back to things very often that don't grab my attention right up front, but I will play this album a few times and trust, as the title states, the courage of others.
P.S. Still listening. It's definitely the singer's vocal range and the harmonies that make the tracks sound the same. Come on, enlightenment!
Stunning and definltely a grower. February 4, 2010
Mr. J. Burton (england)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
On the first few listens the album is simply just 'nice' and the songs seem fairly repetitive. However, as with all great albums, repeated listening will reward you with an absolute stunner of an lp.
The moment it clicked for me was whilst listening to it on headphones, whilst walking along a deserted beach in the middle of the night. Easily as good as The Trials Of Van Occupanther and in my opinion a more rewarding album.
Showing reviews 26-30 of 45
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