In the review for Exclaim, Sydney Brasil declared " Cavalcade is an album of extremes, fluctuating between lounging wizardry and an angular, prog-rock nightmare. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Cavalcade received a score of 81, based on 22 reviews.
Critical reception Professional ratings Aggregate scoresĬavalcade has been greeted with considerable acclaim from music reviewers. A week after its release, the album entered the UK albums chart at number 60. For this reason, this format was disqualified from contributing to the album's chart placement in the UK.
In the UK and the US, one "golden ticket" offering a choice of prizes was hidden in one standard black vinyl LP copy of Cavalcade. Though the band and Rough Trade announced a release for 28 May, the album was immediately released on Apple Music, Bandcamp, and multiple other streaming platforms after the stream ended. On, Black Midi live streamed Cavalcade on their YouTube channel.
The cover version is unique for each location, with separate covers being recorded for United States and United Kingdom-based independent record stores. Each pre-ordered vinyl copy of the album from either an independent record store, Rough Trade Shops, Rough Trade Records' webstore, or Tower Records includes a flexi disc containing a cover version of a specific song, selected by fans, from a premade playlist the Tower Records release includes a CD in place of a flexi disc. Cavalcade was released on through Rough Trade Records both digitally and physically, as a black vinyl, picture disc vinyl, CD, and cassette. A 12-inch release for the single was made available for pre-order on 23 March and was released on 9 April. The single was backed with the non-album track "Despair". A music video was also released for "John L". On the same day, they released the album's lead single, the opening track "John L". Release īlack Midi announced the details for Cavalcade on 23 March 2021, revealing its track listing and release date.
The album's lyrics revolve around depictions of "larger than life figures", with the figures depicted ranging from "a cult leader fallen on hard times and an ancient corpse found in a diamond mine to legendary cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, strolling seductively past them". The music of Cavalcade has been primarily described as progressive rock, experimental rock, jazz fusion, math rock and avant-prog. Afterward, they recorded the rest of the album with John "Spud" Murphy at Hellfire Studios on Montpelier Hill, County Dublin, during the summer of 2020. The song features the sound of a helicopter unintentionally captured by studio microphones as it flew overhead. The band first recorded "John L", the opening track, with Marta Salogni in London. Saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans, who were a part of Black Midi's recent touring lineup, were a part of the album recording sessions. Guitarist Geordie Greep said of the process, "People seemed to really like the debut album but after a while we all became pretty bored with it.So, it was like: this time let's make something that is actually good." Prior to the recording sessions for the album, guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin took a break from the band, citing a need to focus on his mental health he took part in the writing sessions for Cavalcade, however. The band chose to have a less improvisational approach to writing their second studio album, in contrast to Schlagenheim which was crafted around jam sessions. Black Midi began writing music for a new album in late 2019, not long after the release of their debut studio album, Schlagenheim, in June of that year.