TRACKLIST

1. Roscoe. . . . . . . . . . .4:49  2. Bandits . . . . . . . . . .4:04  3. Head Home . . . . . . . . .5:46  4. Van Occupanther . . . . . .3:16  5. Young Bride . . . . . . . .4:57  6. Branches. . . . . . . . . .5:03  7. In This Camp. . . . . . . .5:44  8. We Gathered in Spring . . .3:33  9. It Covers the Hillsides . .3:14 10. Chasing After Deer. . . . .2:42 11. You Never Arrived . . . . .1:40

REVIEW
Midlake's second album is a departure from their lo-fi, psychedelic pop-influenced debut. The Trials of Van Occupanther jumps with both feet into the '70s of Laurel Canyon troubadours and soft rock balladeers. It jumps like Bob Beamon right past any other current bands treading similar ground and jumps back into time, becoming one of the best examples of the sound and style you'll ever hear, date of release notwithstanding. The first thing you notice on the album is the stunning vocal harmonies; you might think you dropped in an America disc by mistake. (The best record America ever did, that is.) Tim Smith has the kind of voice you know could be a glass-shattering instrument on par with that of Buckley or Wainwright, but he keeps it dialed down to an intimate scale, which is a wise decision. His vocals bleed melancholy honesty, and the way it combines with Eric Pulido's voice will raise goose bumps. The arrangements provide a perfect bed for the vocals, with cottony layers of acoustic guitars and strings, gentle horns, restrained drums, and lyrical piano combining beautifully. The occasional surprises are effective, especially when they use some of the corniest synth sounds heard since Jan Hammer unstrapped his keytar for the last time, on "We Gathered in Spring" and "It Covers the Hillside." All of which is nice but isn't worth much without songs. Fortunately, Midlake writes unerringly tuneful melodies and thoughtful lyrics about topics other than love and introspection, and lays down plenty of gentle hooks. Nothing that you'll be singing in the shower for days at a time, but each song goes down smoothly and they add up to make The Trials of Van Occupanther a very pleasant, maybe even exciting in a restrained way, listening experience. You'll certainly find yourself reaching for it more often than you might expect; indeed, it has lasting power that many records that sound so good on first listen lack. Midlake might be stuck in the '70s, but they make it sound like the best place on earth.

SPOILER!

CODE X Lossless Decoder version 20100209 (116.0) XLD extraction logfile from 2010-02-11 10:18:57 +0100 Midlake / The Trials of Van Occupanther Used drive : MATSHITA DVD-R  UJ-846 (revision FM3J) Use cdparanoia mode    : YES (CDParanoia III 10.2 engine) Disable audio cache    : OK for the drive with cache less than 2750KB Make use of C2 pointers : NO Read offset correction  : 102 Max retry count        : 100 TOC of the extracted CD     Track |  Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector     ---------------------------------------------------------         1  | 00:00:00 | 04:49:23 |        0    |    21697          2  | 04:49:23 | 04:04:36 |    21698    |    40033          3  | 08:53:59 | 05:45:70 |    40034    |    65978          4  | 14:39:54 | 03:15:71 |    65979    |    80674          5  | 17:55:50 | 04:56:52 |    80675    |  102926          6  | 22:52:27 | 05:03:06 |    102927    |  125657          7  | 27:55:33 | 05:44:07 |    125658    |  151464          8  | 33:39:40 | 03:33:31 |    151465    |  167470          9  | 37:12:71 | 03:14:01 |    167471    |  182021        10  | 40:26:72 | 02:42:27 |    182022    |  194198        11  | 43:09:24 | 01:40:03 |    194199    |  201701  List of alternate offset correction values         #  | Absolute | Relative | Confidence     ------------------------------------------         1  |    760  |    658  |    30            2  |    692  |    590  |      8    All Tracks     Album gain            : -8.12 dB     Peak                  : 0.986359 Track 01     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/01 - Roscoe.flac     Pre-gap length : 00:02:00     Track gain            : -8.89 dB     Peak                  : 0.968353     CRC32 hash (test run)  : C9125CFF     CRC32 hash            : C9125CFF     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : F3BFB05E     AccurateRip signature  : 27D6AC4E         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 36)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 02     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/02 - Bandits.flac     Track gain            : -7.05 dB     Peak                  : 0.964996     CRC32 hash (test run)  : 141E656E     CRC32 hash            : 141E656E     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 172A0592     AccurateRip signature  : 1C50C54F         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 37)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 03     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/03 - Head Home.flac     Track gain            : -8.76 dB     Peak                  : 0.986267     CRC32 hash (test run)  : 8EF310B1     CRC32 hash            : 8EF310B1     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 4F3ABC52     AccurateRip signature  : 50605406         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 37)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 04     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/04 - Van Occupanther.flac     Track gain            : -7.71 dB     Peak                  : 0.946838     CRC32 hash (test run)  : B2C677F9     CRC32 hash            : B2C677F9     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 5CAEFC33     AccurateRip signature  : F9EA954F         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 36)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 05     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/05 - Young Bride.flac     Track gain            : -7.93 dB     Peak                  : 0.941650     CRC32 hash (test run)  : D7942277     CRC32 hash            : D7942277     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : D4EC2206     AccurateRip signature  : 8D176036         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 37)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 06     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/06 - Branches.flac     Track gain            : -6.51 dB     Peak                  : 0.978729     CRC32 hash (test run)  : C8B670DA     CRC32 hash            : C8B670DA     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 25E5168C     AccurateRip signature  : 3A410580         ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 35)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 07     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/07 - In This Camp.flac     Track gain            : -8.44 dB     Peak                  : 0.971771     CRC32 hash (test run)  : 81594FB4     CRC32 hash            : 81594FB4     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : B1D85FB5     AccurateRip signature  : DC6F628E         ->Accurately ripped! 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(confidence 35)     Statistics         Read error                          : 0         Skipped (treated as error)          : 0         Edge jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Atom jitter error (maybe fixed)      : 0         Drift error (maybe fixed)            : 0         Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed)    : 0         Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0         Inconsistency in error sectors      : 0 Track 11     Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/11 - You Never Arrived.flac     Track gain            : -7.18 dB     Peak                  : 0.966034     CRC32 hash (test run)  : 3E87175E     CRC32 hash            : 3E87175E     CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 462F5718     AccurateRip signature  : 05B2CC90         ->Accurately ripped! 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YOUTUBE LINKS:
Roscoe > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggVH8O9ynU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggVH8O9ynU
Bandits > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbOEROMb8w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbOEROMb8w
Head Home > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSyYewpiHE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSyYewpiHE
Van Occupanther > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRpjmg8zst4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRpjmg8zst4
Young Bride > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7YnE2Lv2Tw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7YnE2Lv2Tw
We Gathered in Spring > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pTCMlr_q2Q (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pTCMlr_q2Q
It Covers the Hillsides > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9aixvrvwiQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9aixvrvwiQ
Chasing After Deer > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S7wWr5lZd4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S7wWr5lZd4
You Never Arrived > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xsYRDR_Sg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xsYRDR_Sg


Masterpiece! Enjoy