Word: smithing
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...week later, Smith announced that FAS would not make the expected funding cuts for Harvard College Library, the largest unit in the library system...
...their newest album, “The Courage of Others,” Texas band Midlake strays from the energetic alternative rock of previous releases towards a folk-inspired, pastoral sound. Lead vocalist and songwriter Tim Smith attempts to conjure a wintry atmosphere with delicate acoustic guitar and lyrics about cycles of death and rebirth. Unfortunately, while he does manage to capture a sense of stillness and bleakness, there is no suggestion of spring to come, and the gloomy minor key sustained throughout leaves the listener wanting to hibernate rather than go for a romp in the snow...
Opening track “Acts of Man,” sets the tone lyrically and harmonically for the rest of the album. The song is rather static: Smith sings within a restricted vocal range, and the lyrics consist of a repeated chant: “If all that grows starts to fade, starts to falter / Oh, let me inside, let me inside, not to wait / Great are the sounds of all that live / And all that man can hold.” While the lyrics refer to both the barrenness of winter and earth’s hidden bounty...
...realized. The absence of heavy handed and uninteresting electric guitar riffs—which in previous tracks drown out otherwise intricate instrumentation—allows the acoustic guitar to shine through. Smith’s clear and tender vocals are here successfully highlighted. Liberated by the more varied melody, Smith weaves a narrative that is less mournful and more hopeful than those of the other tracks. For just over two minutes the clouds part, and Midlake captures a poignant sense of winter that is not all doom and gloom...
However, the magic is lost in the next track, “Rulers, Ruling All Things,” on which Smith and the band forget what made “Fortune” successful, reverting to the droning sound and seemingly insincere angst of the earlier tracks. The album reaches a low point on the aptlytitled “Bring Down,” with its melodramatic lyrics: “Pray for all to end / And silence be all / Now the joy has burned out and it’s gone / But I don’t know...