Released: 18/03/22
Reaching out into fresh territory with soaring guitars and a richly intuitive dynamism, honouring their past as a seedbed of possibility, Midlake's triumphant return with For the Sake of Bethel Woods, the band's first since 2013's Antiphon, makes us wonder how we ever managed without them
On-hand for For the Sake of Bethel Woods was new collaborator John Congleton, who produced, engineered and mixed the album, marking Midlake’s first record with an outside producer. “I can’t say enough just how much his influence brought our music to another sonic place than we would have,” says frontman Eric Pulido. “I don’t want to record without a producer again. Part of that is the health of the band, because as you get older you get more opinionated and you kind of need that person who says, ‘No, it’s going to be this way!’ It’s hard to do that with your friends.”
In reuniting, the bandmates were adamant that Midlake needed their absolute focus. The result is an album of tremendously engaged thematic and sonic reach with a warm, wise sense of intimacy at its heart: an album which to break bread and commune, honour the past and travel onwards.