Review: Midlake: The Courage of Others [B+]

Artist: Midlake
Album: The Courage of Others
Released: January 2010
Label: Bella Union
Genre: folk-rock

Purchase date: 04 Feb 2010
Source: eMusic

I'd never heard of this band until Jim and Greg reviewed this album on Sound Opinions. 2009 and 2010 seem to have been big years for the return of folk-rock to the scene, with acts like Fleet Foxes, The Dry Spells, and Midlake bringing in accolades from fans and critics alike. Midlake is an acoustic folk-rock band from Texas in the vein of Steeleye Span or Fairport Convention. Their music is earnest, simple in instrumentation, with great depth in complexity and emotion. They may be from the desert, but their music invokes the green primeval forests of a Britain that only exists in legend.

Rating: B+

Live performance of "Acts of Man"

Album Listing on Amazon

Album Listing on eMusic

Review: The Dry Spells: Too Soon For Flowers [A-]

Artist: The Dry Spells

Album: Too Soon For Flowers

Released: January 2009

Label: Antenna Farm Records

Genre: Folk-Rock

Purchase date: 07 Jan 2010

Purchased from: eMusic.com

A folk-rock band from San Francisco, The Dry Spells have an early-70's vibe reminiscent of one part Fleetwood Mac and two parts Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention. You can really feel the English folk-rock vibe on their version of the traditional English ballad "Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair." I've always been a huge fan of '70s English folk-rock, and this band does it really, really well. The haunting female three-part harmony vocals and crack instrumentation put this album on high rotation on my iPod. The one stumble they make on the album is their cover of "Rhiannon" (originally by Fleetwood Mac). It's a competent, faithful cover that really doesn't fit with the rest of the album.

Rating: A-

Album listing at eMusic

Album listing at Amazon