Midas Fall - The Menagerie Inside

  by Adrian Janes

published: 25 / 9 / 2015

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The third album from Midas Fall first comes into focus on its third track, ‘Circus Performer’. Opening songs ‘Push’ and ‘Afterthought’ establish characteristic elements - (Elizabeth Heaton’s voice, which ranges from vulnerable to impassioned, Rowan Burn’s dexterous guitarwork) - but the former is to some extent just sound and fury while the latter, with its ornate riff, a little too showy. On ‘Circus Performer’ it all comes together with a beautiful interplay of voice and soaring guitar over solid rhythm support, a musical high-wire display of controlled passion. The connection and reflection between Heaton’s voice and Burn’s guitar is often suggestive of the Cocteau Twins. But they put distance between themselves and this influence through additional textures, for example the high rippling piano on ‘A Song Built from Scraps of Paper’ and Steven Pellatt’s unobtrusively varied drumming. The echo of Elizabeth Fraser is most apparent on the ballad ‘Counting Colours’, but here too its bed of keening, almost Middle Eastern strings and semi-military drums take it to another place sonically, while still approaching something of the Twins’ emotional intensity. ‘Tramadol Baby’ is another of the stronger tracks, showcasing how the band can move from a delicate acoustic mood to reverbed guitar attack within a few breaths. As ever, the lyrics are only partly discernible, but the feeling in the singing and playing suggests the struggle of addiction - it would certainly be a rare drug-related song whose message was just “Follow the recommended dosage”. ‘The Menagerie Inside’ is a title which aptly evokes the paradoxes of Midas Fall’s songs. For all that there is a strong sense of surface control and structure (encapsulated by the beautifully edgy guitar on ‘The Morning Asked and I Said No’) there are often wilder depths hinted at too (for example, the Florence Welch-like moments on ‘Holes’ where Heaton really stretches her voice). If not a golden album, Midas Falls have at least created something that glitters with promise.

Track Listing:-

1 Push
2 Afterthought
3 Circus Performer
4 Counting Colours
5 Low
6 The Morning Asked and I Said 'No'
7 Tramadol Baby
8 Half a Mile Outside
9 A Song Built from Scraps of Paper
10 Holes

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/midasfall
http://www.midasfall.com/
https://twitter.com/midasfall
http://www.last.fm/music/Midas+Fall
https://www.youtube.com/user/midasfall

Label Links:-

http://www.monotremerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MonotremeRecords
https://twitter.com/Monotreme_Recds
https://www.youtube.com/user/monotremerecords/

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