Published:
February 3, 2010
Last night, around midnight, a subtle mumbling and almost palpable sense of discomfort spread throughout Denton: Pitchfork.com finally posted its review of the new Midlake album, “The Courage of Others”, and awarded it a meager 3.6/10.
Locals immediately took to the Twitter-verse to express their feelings with comments like:
“Pitchfork...Ooch!”
“I don't know Paul Thompson personally, but GOD DAMN, I hope he never writes a review for my band's record!”
“Pitchfork Offers Up Its Review of Midlake's The Courage of Others. And? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.”
Jeremy Buller (@takeaparthead) provided the most astute observation in saying that “there's very little mention of 'the courage of others' in pitchfork's review of 'the courage of others'”, which the NX35 blog picked up on and perfectly illustrated with a graphic. In fact, “The Trials of Van Occupanther” was such a presence in Pitchfork’s opinion, NX35 writer Lindsay Milne was able to take the review of “Courage of Others” and, with some light editing, make it into a feature about “Van Occupanther”.
It may not surprise many to hear that WeShotJR.com agreed with Pitchfork. They saw “Courage” as “...unenthusiastic, a little bit forced, endlessly labored over and quite tense, [and] lacking in the warmth and sense of adventure that the group's previous record conveyed so well.” Fair enough.
Dallas Observer’s Pete Freedman won’t let the dissenters change his opinion: “I still find it an impressive--if, yes, somber and dense--listen.” Nor will it change the opinion of My Denton Music.
Pitchfork is perfectly entitled to their own opinion; it’s their job, in fact. And, out of all the glowing accolades coming in from the press in the US and UK, one could expect at least one dissenting opinion. But one particular place where reviewer Paul Thompson’s credibility disappears is here:
“A lot of those Britfolk cats were really hot players and there's not even that to hold onto; every performance is a few notches above adequate, but there's no bite to any of it, no intensity, precious little conveyance of emotion”
Anyone who’s ever read anything about Midlake is aware of their musical history; these guys are really hot players, too. Granted, they worked hard to restrain themselves on “The Courage of Others”, but the use of dynamics for each tune shows a very deliberate handling of intensity, and the interplay between the bass and drums to keep the foundation of the songs strong is enough to show that the musicianship is far above adequate. Paul Thompson is missing the difference between restraint and lack of emotion.
For proof that it’s possible to be restrained, yet reasonable, in reviewing this increasingly controversial album, check out AllMusic.com’s 3 1/2-star review.
