On The Rocks – Midland
This article was originally posted to the S&R Blog.
I’m not exactly a big fan of country music, so consider me sufficiently shocked when the new album I came back to the most this weekend was the debut from Texas upstarts, Midland. You can tell immediately from the cover art that this isn’t going to be anything remotely resembling modern country, but instead harken back to a day long before I was born. One of the standouts on the album, smartly enough, is “Check Cashin’ Country”, a song all about how Midland’s music isn’t designed to top the charts or sound like what’s spinning today, in 2017. But the swelling opening chords of the record had already made this clear to me. The opening track, “Lonely for Only You”, transported me to a dark Austin bar in the ‘70s with peanut shells on the floor and a haze that’s a mix of cigarettes and dust, or at least that’s what I pictured when I closed my eyes. Each track only furthered this imagined teleportation, reminding me of what country-western was all about, and for 46 minutes I could call myself a truly devoted fan. Give me a ten-gallon hat and some dark brown cowboy boots – I’ll see you deep in the heart of Texas.
Check out Midland’s On The Rocks on Spotify or Apple Music.
And check out Mike Wohl on Spotify and Apple Music and Soundcloud!