What Midlake gets right on For the Sake of Bethel Woods are the consistently tight performances, songwriting, and sonic elements of psychedelia and electronics included in their folk rock and pop songs. These elements could be pushed a bit further, but its consistency in quality is impressive regardless.
During the 2000's, indie psychedelic folk went wild throughout the underground. My Morning Jacket, Grizzly Bear, Grandaddy, Band of Horses, The Shins. The list goes on and on, really. Midlake are one of those bands who, although flourished within the indie music scene and numerous internet blogs, never seemed to gain the critical acclaim like a Neutral Milk Hotel or the popular festival lineup slot of a My Morning Jacket. They certainly have the charisma to do so and have quietly been active as a band since 1999. There have been numerous ups and downs along the way with lineup changes, the most notable being the lead singer Tim Smith leaving the band. Eric Pulido, guitarist, filled in on lead vocals and lead songwriting duties for 2013's Atiphon and has remained the band's driving creative force since. Here's some clarification to the dear reader: I'm not the most novice Midlake expert. Like, at all. I found out about Midlake from a couple of songs back in the early 2010's. Curiosity really sparked my interest when the supergroup BNQT was formed in 2016, a group where Pulido is the founding member with other members of Midlake being the backing band, often giving numerous indie rock guest stars a lead a la Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kopranos or Band of Horses Ben Bridwell or even Pulido himself.
Fast-forwarding to 2022, we finally have a new Midlake album. The first in roughly nine years, For the Sake of Bethel Woods has arrived. The band's fifth album and second with Pulido on lead, this is easily one of the nicest surprises for me this year... and I'll tell you why. As someone who really only knew the single "Young Bride" within their catalog (which is still a rad song by the way), I didn't know what to expect honestly going into this. I found this album to be precise and consistent in quality. It's great, rewarding indie rock and folk with some airy but more often intense psychedelia that's taken out of the Grizzly Bear or Radiohead playbooks. One might think that the majority of this album might be just some King of Limbs cosplay, but I think there's more than just that. There are some rich details that I do appreciate from the band. Rather than just some cookie cutter indie folk, I think there's enough twists and turns, stylistic shifts, and great vocal performances from Eric Pulido that should keep the fans happy and on their toes, including newcomers like myself.
Some of these excellent surprising details, for example, are in the lead singles. Even if they are a bit subtle, these details are very cool to check out. The booming hip hop like drums that open "Bethel Woods" are fantastic, along with the rest of the drumming, which definitely attributes to this song's best moments. I do recommend checking out its accompanying music video starring Michael Peña. It's really gripping and it is one of my favorite music videos of 2022 so far. "Glistening" has some of the sharp, classically hypnotic Radiohead styled guitars that swirl around your head with some synthesizers that might take you on a trip. There are some sweet electronic and ambient embellishments placed across the record, like in the beginning of "Exile" or the album closer "Of Desire." One of the album's best highlights, "Feast of Carrion," starts out being a very traditional folk pop ballad and ends with a triumphantly sunlit tone shifter in jammy acoustics. The six-and-a-half minute long ballad "Noble" has a beautifully crushing progression through the band's harmonies and squirming, abrasive electronics. If you had Daniel Rossen singing lead on the cut with backing harmonies, you could definitely have an excellent Shields-era Grizzly Bear b-side.
"Meanwhile..." was introduced as a lead single and it still sounds great on the album. It's surprisingly not as moving or memorable when compared to other songs like "Bethel Woods" or "Glistening" within the context of the album, but it's still an album highlight. I appreciate the sinister slinking pace of "Gone" and its dark and shrouded electronics. "The End" sounds like a proper continuation to "Meanwhile..." within its piano driven instrumental and pacing. "The End" does include some great psychedelic harmonies a la Magical Mystery Tour. As mentioned earlier, "Of Desire" has some great electronics in the mix and is one of the most enticing and moving cuts on the album, thanks to the climactic progression and epically massive instrumentation towards its end.
What Midlake gets right on For the Sake of Bethel Woods are the consistently tight performances, songwriting, and sonic experimentations of psychedelia and electronics included in their folk rock and pop songs. Although that is the case, these elements of psychedelia are subtle, light and almost too "safe" when compared to Midlake's other contemporaries. If there was one gripe I have about this record is that the band didn't push these elements enough. I would love to see a Midlake album in the future that really experiments on those psychedelic tendencies hard. Regardless, Bethel Woods has great performances and the majority of the songs themselves can be gripping and captivating. The consistency in quality throughout the album is impressive for a band that's been around for over two decades. Bands within this realm are most likely expected to fall into the ether and to be included as simply a footnote within indie, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the case for Midlake by any means.
My Rating: 7 / 10
Favorite Songs: "Bethel Woods", "Feast of Carrion", "Glistening", "Of Desire", "Meanwhile..."
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