Midlake - Antiphon - Alternative - CD

Midlake returns with their new studio album ANTIPHON. An antiphon is a call and response style of singing, from Gregorian chants to sea shanties. In the case of Denton, Texas favorite sons Midlake, it's the perfect title for a bold response to a new phase in the bands illustrious career, with a re jigged lineup and a newly honed sound as rich and symphonic as it is dynamic and kaleidoscopic. Anyone who knows Midlake's preceding albums will recognize some constituent parts of ANTIPHON: The quirky Psychedelia of 2004 debut BAMNAN and Slivercork, the 70s Soft-Rock strains of breakthrough album THE TRIALS OF VAN OCCUPANTHER and the Brit-Folk infusion of 2010s THE COURAGE OF OTHERS. But their fourth album is another fascinating departure, but also a logical progression. The sound is simultaneously familiar and changed.

Midlake already had the bulk of their fourth long-player in the can when lead vocalist and songwriter Tim Smith announced that he was leaving the mercurial Lone Star State indie rockers to start a new project. Smith's shape-shifting songwriting style and idiosyncratic voice guided the band through three very different-sounding records, so it should come as no surprise that 2013ￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢs aptly named Antiphon (a short sentence sung or recited before or after a psalm or canticle), which finds guitarist Eric Pulido at the helm, is both an invocation of past digressions and a stylistic leap of faith. Less heady than 2010ￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢs English folk-imbued Courage of Others, yet retaining its overcast, Fleet Foxes-meets Meddle-era Pink Floyd ambience, Antiphon sounds more like the work of a band and less like the fleshed-out audio installations of a bandleader. Pulido's even-keeled voice and enigmatic lyrics are close enough to Smith's to alleviate any scarring (casual Midlake fans will probably be none the wiser), but his version of the group, while still steeped in the harmony-laden, smoky patina of '70s AOR pop, is less brooding than Smith's. There's a breezy melancholy and a winning, natural compression to cuts like "The Old and the Young," the serpentine title track, and the lush "Aurora Gone," the latter of which sounds the most like something off of their 2006 breakthrough Trials of Van Occupanther, that sets the nervous system at ease, imbuing meatier cuts like "It's Going Down" and the snaky, Calexico-informed instrumental "Vale" with a rich sunset glow that belies their sonic amplitude. To be fair, the band still sounds like they could break into "Breathe" at any moment, but there's a sense of adventure and a vulnerability to Antiphon that suggests that this latest incarnation of the group is more interested in what's beyond the Dark Side of the Moon than it is standing in its shadow. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Performer	Midlake
Music genre	Alternative
Media format	CD
Original release date	2013
Language	English
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	Antiphon, Provider, The Old and the Young, It's Going Down, Vale, Aurora Gone, Ages, This Weight, Corruption, Provider (Reprise)
Record label	Ato Records
Track name	Antiphon, Provider, The Old And The Young, It's Going Down, Vale, Aurora Gone, Ages, This Weight, Corruption, Provider Reprise
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N