Milkmaid Grand Army is a reissue of a 7 song EP originally released in 2001. The tracks here therefore predate Midlake's highly regarded second album - 'The Trials of Van Occupanther' - by 5 years and the sound is quite different from that album's laid back brand of pastoral prog-pop.
While the Texan band’s melodic sound on ‘Van Occupanther’ owed much to Fleetwood Mac & CSN it also disconcertingly resembled Travis. In contrast, the influence of this ep is unmistakably that of Radiohead.
Singer songwriter Tim Smith makes no attempt to hide this fact, revealing that he listened to OK Computer every day for about a year while studying jazz at music college. After this full immersion he has totally absorbed all the nuance's of Thom Yorke's phrasing and even Yorke's famous reticence towards facing the limelight of fame is aped in lyrics like "Millions sing, but I go inside" and "You can't make it better, you can't drop out of sight"
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Almost inevitably they are no match for the real thing but they do a passable imitation all the same, particularly on the stand out track 'Excited But Not Enough'.
This record will be eagerly lapped up by Midlake's growing fan base but when heard alongside the magnificent 'In Rainbows' the gulf between this and the band that inspired it is enormous.
We have to await the true follow up to 'Van Occupanther' to hear what the band's own voice sounds like.
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