Midwife – No Depression In Heaven – Album Review

Midwife is the name under which Madeline Johnston records.  This is the fourth album she has released under that name. It’s a glacially paced beauty, right from the start with the slow piano chords and Johnston’s spooked out, faraway sounding voice on Rock N Roll Never Forgets, going nowhere beautifully for seven minutes, adding steel guitar halfway through.  Autolumiscent and Droving’s doomy, yet soothing and immersive chord progressions are more akin to early Low or Mogwai.

The despairing Vanessa consists of little more than Johnston singing the title repeatedly over gloriously downbeat guitar lines.  Killdozer sounds a bit more optimistic with its ringing guitars and whispered vocals, but it’s followed up by of all things, a cover of the Alice Deejay dance song Better Off Alone.  This one is completely stripped back and slowed down.  Not sure it completely fits with the rest, it doesn’t jar the mood but it’s possibly an overfamiliar melody.  The album ends with the title track, a drifting ode fit for staring out the window into the rain.  Another one where little happens other than Johnston repeating crying with progressively more emphasis as it wears on over the loveliest intertwining guitars.

It will be a bit repetitive, and a bit deadening for some. But for others that will be just fine, the slow burning, eerie melodies will wrap themselves around your ears.

Killdozer