Album Review: Midlake - Antiphon

This wistful band of Texans trade in the American gothic for a solid helping of psychedelics. Newly promoted singer Eric Pulido takes the reigns and leads Midlake down a new, twisting path on Antiphon. Hold on to your lava lamps!

If you had asked former Midlake vocalist/guitarist Tim Smith who the band's greatest influence was he would have said Jethro Tull. If you ask a fan the same question, especially a fan of their earlier work, they would probably say Radiohead. Despite the fact that the band hail from Texas it appears as though Midlake have a taste for eccentric British rock music, and who can blame them? Antiphon, a new album with a new line-up in tow, is an earnest attempt to create something that doesn't emulate the band's idols but rather make a true Midlake record.

Antiphon finds Midlake in a classicist prog mood. This is not like many other acts to shameless ape their forebears considering that nostalgia is a huge market nowadays. This is genuine worship, tribute, and synthesis that forges a new identity from the bones of those who came before. On tracks like 'Vale' and 'Provider' you can all but see the flowing sleeves and smell the pungent smoke. The album is packed with wistful, mid-tempo wanderers the type that were so popular in the mid 70s. That is certainly not to say that the album is bland but it certainly rides its own kind of strange momentum. Paul Alexander's loping basslines adds the right amount of shake and rattle to their natural roll whenever the pace threatens to dip too low.

'This Weight' sounds like a latter day Zeppelin, when they had traded their iconoclastic blues-rock for introspective jams. Even the guitar and keyboard effects are decidedly vintage. The gentle flutes that float through the arrangement of album closer 'Provider Reprise' are actually more akin to early King Crimson than Tull. As a part of that aforementioned line-up change around, guitarist Eric Pulido has taken the center stage from Smith and he does a fine job as the lead vocalist. His voice is not as fragile as Smith's was, and perhaps even more detached sounding, but it fits the tone of the album well.

This is certainly no good times record but it could well be a wellspring of good memories to an audiophiles ears. You might not spin it with some buddies and beers over a barbeque in the summer sun but it might just become your best friend at two in the morning with a half-emptied bottle of scotch at your side. It doesn't reach the brittle, dark majesty of 2010's The Courage of Others (the album that made many, myself included, fall in love with the band) but Antiphon is a fine collection of songs that ably points the way forward for this promising act.

Rating: B+

Recommended tracks: Vale, Provider Reprise