By Matt Kiernan

Alternative-folk band Midlake releases their third full-length album, The Courage of Others – an album that is, for the most part, stripped down to the core of their easy-going soft rock.

The band’s greatly influenced by the folk and soft rock godfathers America and Neil Young, which shows in their deliverance of tightly constructed songs, led by the use of classical guitars.

“Acts of Man” opens the album, a song that celebrates the existence of life, with the inclusion of lyrics such as, “Great are the sounds of all that live.”

This track is followed by “Winter Dies,” with Tim Smith on vocals: “And full of spirit the villager starts again/ with one more year for a man to change his ways.” The song is about the new beginnings that come with winter coming to an end, and the start of spring and summer giving fresh starts for people.

“Core of Nature” is a track that tells the story of a man going out into the woods to take in all that it has to offer, which takes on an essay of that of a Romantic writer.

Lead singer Smith’s vocals sound very similar to that of the alt-folk band Iron & Wine’s Samuel Beam. Smith’s songs are performed with a tone that resembles that of a medieval bard, calling out poems about ancient tales from long ago.

Midlake received a rise in popularity with their 2006 release The Trials of Van Occupanther, an album that weighed more heavily into psychedelics. This was released on the record label Bella Union, owned by dream pop band, Cocteau Twins’ bassist, Simon Raymonde.

The album for the most part is a celebration of the world and life, sending a positive message within clever lyrics, sung through traditional music that may be different from what is known today as modern music.