What's the thinking on the new Midlake album then ?

Reviews have been a bit mixed, some praise for them going off in a bold Fairport Convention direction. Andrew Collins in Word waxed highly effusive about it, he has been listening to nothing else for weeks. But then some pretty underwhelmed reviews of it around too.

Personally it does nothing for me whatsoever. As their other work is so slow burning I have listened to this 3 or 4 times to see if it would eventually register with me. But no, nothing at all. Not one track

It's funny, that. 6 Music have been playing the single lately (Acts Of Man, I think) and it jumped out at me immediately. It made me come over all nostalgic for some reason, possibly because of folk being the approved music of childhood in the seventies, as Taylor once put it with his usual wisdom. I liked it a lot.

I've never heard anything else by Midlake, though, so I couldn't comment on the rest of the album. Folk in general has always been a bit of a blind spot for me, and like a few people my age, I was actively resistant to it for reasons discussed on here in the past. I think I need to catch up on it.

First impressions... underwhelmed.

I'm seeing them on Friday as well and am now a bit concerned it may rival Grizzly Bear as an unexpectedly dull gig.

I love Fairport Convention, but I'm prepared to bet this is fucking shit.

I'll give it a go, though.

On the basis of hearing 'Roscoe' and positive reviews, I bought the previous album and it's good, but I think I have to be in a certain mood to really enjoy it, otherwise it just becomes a bore. In fact, aside from 'Roscoe', I can't remember another song off the albu.
The same could be said for 'The Courage of Others', which i've listened to on Spotify a couple of times. I may reserve it for a Sunday morning, half awake, bleary eyed yet sober mood. Compared to say, the Fleet Foxes album, there's not one song on that latest Midlake album that stands out from the rest.