Review Summary: Let yourself float away
Around halfway through my first listen of
Cold Waves Divide Us, something interesting happened. I felt myself begin to slip away. Now, I’ve zoned out listening to albums before, but this was the first time where I felt like I had fallen into a trance. I was fully aware of each note ringing through my ears, but my mind felt somewhere else. Call it ascended, call it being zen like never before, but I can’t say that most other albums have had that sort of effect on me.
It’s a testament to the skill of Scottish trio Midas Fall that they were able to craft such a gripping record. For all 47 minutes, they sweep the listener up in post prog rock glory, a melancholic and dark journey that manages to both haunt and amaze at the exact same time. And if you’ll lend me your eyeballs and a couple minutes of your life, I’d be happy to explain exactly why this music is so gripping.
Cold Waves Divide Us can be described in one simple word: ethereal. The most obvious reason behind this is frontwoman Elizabeth Heaton, who’s haunting vocals float through the record, spellbinding the ears each and every time. It’s undeniable that a lot of Midas's impact would be lost if Heaton’s vocals were replaced by someone else’s.
And yet, despite that, Heaton has a shockingly minimal presence on the album, at least from a vocal standpoint. Lyrics on each of the songs tend to be simple and short, either drawn out or spaced out in between gorgeous instrumental passages. This is where the magic of Midas Fall really begins to kick in. Three multi-instrumentalist members deftly wielding synths and guitar and bass and piano? Done wrong, it could be a mess of sounds and ideas that don’t gel properly. But, let’s be real, you’ve seen my rating, you know exactly how well they pull it off.
Midas Fall’s instrumentals on this album are all about building and building. Opening track “In the Morning We’ll Be Someone Else” demonstrates this perfectly, beginning with a somber piano, a couple simple strummed chords, and Heaton’s haunting voice, before drums come in to underscore the composition. This group of sonic elements work perfectly with each other, building and building to a climax in the final 30 seconds that feels like ascending to the heavens.
All of the tracks on this album roughly follow that same formula, and if I had to level any criticism at
Cold Waves, it would be that the album does remain pretty formulaic from song to song. But formulaic doesn’t necessarily mean bad, especially when it’s executed so well. Just listen to the sparse notes that litter “I Am Wrong”, or the foreboding synths that open lone instrumental “Point of Diminishing Return”, or the atmospheric title track that perfectly encapsulates Midas Fall’s self-described brand of “miserable prog”. It’s a repeated build over ten tracks, but it never feels old or stale by the end of its run, an impressive achievement in and of itself.
So, combine a hauntingly gorgeous vocalist with a repeated “rise and build” structure over the course of ten songs, all backed up by killer instrumental soundscapes that combine beautiful ambience with soul-touching riffs and drum beats, and it’s no wonder why this album sent me into a trance by track 4 or 5. This is a one-of-a-kind album, nearly flawless in its execution, and I’m not sure the 600 word review I’ve written so far could properly put into words how enthralling
Cold Waves Divide Us is. I cannot recommend it enough.
