Folk has had a bit of an insurgence over the UK in the last year, with many acts such as Fleet Foxes and Mumford and Sons reaching huge acclaim, even within the auto-tuned RnB riddled charts. Although Texans Midlake are not hugely known over here, they are slowly gaining attention, with dates all over the UK, and two London dates practically sold out. The hugely successful Trials Of Van Occupanther released in 2006 gave us many city-dwellers a taste of rural life, with songs about harvest and fixing roofs, amongst other things.

The album opens with the huge Acts Of Man, which has the perfect ‘Midlake‘ vibe to set up new and old listeners alike. Tim Smith’s heartfelt and sombre lyrics flow over you, leading into Winter Dies, where he starts cracking out stuff to do with seasons changing, making you see it more as poetry than just lyrics about ‘that hot girl on the dance floor’ or how much you’re going to dance tonight.

Small Mountains is another menagerie of dynamics, ranging from epic choruses with amazing yet subtle vocal harmonies taking all your attention away from the drums and guitar holding it all together in the background. Rulers, Ruling All Things is one of my personal favourites, even if some people have been comparing it to Metallica of all bands. It may do, sure, but it’s better in my opinion.

The album ends with a couple of humble yet haunting down-tempo numbers (even though you could argue they are all fairly down-tempo), leading you out of this truly beautiful album. It may be different from TOVO, but none of the songwriting charms are lost.