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Midlake’s most Midlake-y album yet; a very satisfying mix of ’70s folk, rock and prog. “Days Gone By,” the opening song on Midlake’s sixth album, sounds like a woodland sunrise in June, as the light cracks across the ridge and the flora bend their leaves to catch the rays. Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler and Joey McClellan.
A cyclical song about the cyclical nature of, well, nature, “Days Gone By” blankets you in gently strummed acoustic guitars, fluttering flutes, tinkling ivories, delicately crashed cymbals, and gorgeous harmonies. Building with each stanza, it’s an exceedingly cozy, welcoming start to what may be the most Midlake-y Midlake album yet. Sonically, at least, “A Bridge To Far” is a near-perfect distillation of everything these Denton, TX baroque folk-rock vets have been making for more than two decades.
After working with John Congleton on their fantastic 2022 comeback album “For the Sake of Bethel Woods”, frontman Eric Pulido said he never wanted to make a record again without a producer. For this one, they tapped Sam Evian, who proves to be a perfect match.
“This album, we leaned into our own past in a way where we weren’t referencing some new find or some new path,” Pulido told us. “It was just kind of pulling from the collection of every place that you’ve been. And then you have someone like Sam, objectively kind of going, yeah, let’s go further down that road.”
“A Bridge To Far“not a typo, just one “o” in “to” —has all the Midlake earmarks: proggy bangers (“The Ghouls,” “The Calling”), spectral folk wonderlands (“The Valley of Roseless Thorns,” “Days Gone By”), groovy pastoral rock jams (“Make Haste,” “Eyes Full of Animal,” and the Madison Cunningham duet “Guardians”), more flutes and lush harmonies, Fleetwood Mac-y moments, and more. Yet it never sounds like they’re treading water. By embracing themselves, Midlake have made their most satisfying record since “The Trials of Van Occupanther”and maybe, with time, their best yet.
The Fat Angel Sings 