Review of Australian Band The Middle East
Creative and Intimate, Touring their Unique Music and Poetic Lyrics
Sep 14, 2009
The Middle East, a band from Australia, released their first full-length album in April of 2008, but there is little information about them available online besides basic profile information on MySpace.com and Last.fm.
Many people hope dearly that they will produce more music, and one fan quotes he would trade "a finger and a 6-pack of grape sodas" to see the band create more music. The Middle East is, however, touring in Australia through the rest of this year.
Creative, Intimate Style
The band skillfully uses light, gentle, musical layers to portray the subtleties they sing of. They are highly creative with instrumentation and sound, sometimes whistling in a serious song as a means of building the dynamics. Their music intensity tends to match the lyrical intensity, creating a very full, artistically inspiring experience. The vocals are gentle and pure, with a hushed edge and clear harmonies resembling bells.
The poetry of The Middle East focuses only on the intimate details of a situation. Thus, the situation is not fully explained, but the audience knows that someone is collapsing on a floor holding a portrait, or that someone is tearing down a fence, which fills another person with love. Writing lyrics in such a fashion pierces through the dailiness, generality and cliches that the audience views their lives with, and sharpens the scent of their memories of when love is lost and found.
Famous Songs "Blood" and "The Darkest Side"
The Middle East's most famous song by far, "Blood," tells a story of three separated relationships: a brother and sister, a husband and wife, and a grandfather and his wife. Death separates the first and last pair; divorce separates the second. The first part of the verses sets up the situation and is sung by a single voice; the second part discusses the fallout or gives more personal information and adds a second harmonizing voice to enrich the section.
While the song is about death and separation, it is also about how the path of anguish leads to peace. The father with "those papers for divorce / and a lonely ring" also eventually finds "the creek that runs out into the sea" and "find[s] the peace of the Lord." And the grandfather who's "waited for forever and a day / just to die" to join his dead wife "someday soon . . . will die."
Their second most famous song, "The Darkest Side," gives different scenes of what "love" was at some point--a dream that had to die, "air in your mother's lungs," and black clouds on the day of Jesus' death. The chorus shows love's transforming power as two pure, harmonizing voices sing "it's the darkest side of my heart that dies when you come to me."
The Middle East is available in stores, generally only in Australia and New Zealand. But the album can be shipped over seas if ordered on Amazon, and it can also be bought on iTunes.
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