Midlake: The Courage of Others

While the Texan quintet's 2006 oddball breakthrough The Trials of Van Occupanther at times echoed Fleetwood Mac, their follow-up eschews soft-rock keyboards for mysterious English folk. From opener "Acts of Man" to the final "In the Ground", rich guitar arpeggios and tender harmonies lead us into a dreamy, even-paced medieval landscape of Tarkovsky-like images, minor keys and first-person melancholy. Fusing Nick Drake, Steeleye Span, Jethro Tull and even Gabriel-era Genesis with the tougher burr of Texan indie? It's a miraculous alchemy. Beardy and serious indeed, but like an ancient book inscribed by monks, strangely beautiful.