You know what it means! you almost think you’ve figured out what the person was thinking when they were writing it! IT’S ABOUT YOU! Ok maybe that’s a step too far, or I have transformed into an overtly hopeful optimist but this is how I felt when I heard The Middle East’s song, Blood, for the tenth time. It drew me in. And now I feel like I MUST review this album! What I realised when I listened to Blood over and over again was that I didn’t properly hear the lyrics for a long time, but for some reason it didn’t matter.

Somewhat like Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens, the music itself is so transforming that you already know what the song is about. Maybe the word depressing might fit a little better into transformings place, but how and ever, it’s depressing in the good clean sense of the word .There is a feel good sense when it comes to this kind of music, especially in their song Blood. But what is it that initially attracts us to this song and to its belonging album? Especially when the lyrics are quite hard to understand, or simply just difficult to make out? I thought about this as I was listening to The Middle East’ s debut LP, The Recording of the Middle East.

 Maybe it was the opening of Blood, with its soft guitar strumming accompaniment, or peppy whistling chorus with the twinkling whispers of the xylophone in the background. The care-free instrumentation of this song is definitely what keeps us listening to it. The title of the song Blood is definitely not conducive to the atmosphere it creates. It was after I started really listening to the lyrics, I realised the beauty of the song. Listening to this album without really listening to the lyrics is like watching a sun set over the Grand Canyon while wearing sunglasses smeared with vaseline!

The first song of the album, The Darkest Side is reminiscent of Fionn Regan, especially with the opening and accompanying guitar. The lyrics seemed to depict the relationships of family in this song. Somewhat like Blood. “Love was the air in your mother’s lungs/When her father tore her fences down/Plastic bags and panadol was out.”

The echoing harmonic falsetto is heard by Bree Tranter. The sweetness of her voice is haunting and encapsulates the melancholia of the song. The next song, Beriland is quite dreamlike. The electric guitar stands out along with tambourine accompaniment and brushed drums. It ends in a fuzzy explosion of melody and instrumentation, leading us into the third song, Lonely. Its slow romantic start reverberates throughout the song. A great song for this relaxed atmosphere.

Fools gold andTsietsi are unfortunately a bit too Sigor Ros/Pocahontas for my liking, listen and you’ll know what I mean by Pocahontas. But I guess it’s just de rigeur for the Aussie folk dream poppers when creating such a relaxed album! Overall I felt the album lost its idiosyncrasy about half way through. It got a little dull and monotonous to listen to, and unfortunately, The Fall Of Man made me want to fall asleep and not wake up. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the album. I guess we just grew apart the more we got to know each other. It was a sad day, that day. But it’s not up to me. Have a listen, see what you think, and make your own decision!

Blood features in Crazy, Stupid, Love and It's Kind of a Funny Story. The Middle East separated in July 2011.