The challenge of assigning the music of Midlake to a genre continues. For a band who were briefly pegged as sort of retro-folk outfit (or was that alt-country?), Midlake, even in 2022, produce work that defies easy description. That the tunes are relatively simple makes it almost confounding. Luckily, the stuff on the new album, For the Sake of Bethel Woods, out now via Bella Union, is good enough to deserve praise even if critics are flummoxed by the styles.
Some of the new Midlake album is suprisingly robust, with cuts like "Exile" surging forward with the kind of determination not heard in some earlier releases from the band. And while some of this, like "Glistening", is gentler still, the best material on For Sake of Bethel Woods reveals debts owed to FM Rock of the Seventies. "Meanwhile" has been described as reminiscent of ELO, but I hear early Eighties Moody Blues instead. It's a damn catchy number, as is the the more complex and ruminative "The End", a really haunting bit of business. For Sake of Bethel Woods is a strange record for those who came in on The Trials of Van Occupanther so many years ago, but it's a record that's largely full of warm hooks and rich rewards.
For Sake of Bethel Woods is out now via Bella Union.
[Photo: Barbara FG/Bella Union]