By: “Chad
Malcolm Middleton | website | facebook | twitter | soundcloud |
Released on May 27, 2016 via Nude Records
Over the years Malcolm Middleton has been responsible for some of my favourite songs whether it be Arab Strap tracks such as ‘New Birds’, ‘Packs of Three’ or ‘The First Big Weekend’ or solo classics such as ‘The Ballad of Fuck All’; the guy is undoubtedly an excellent songwriter. I even owe him a debt of gratitude for his influence on one of my favourite bands, The Twilight Sad. If you don’t know who Malcolm Middleton is, he’s an underrated songwriter, a world class lyricist and an incredibly wise chap with the ability to encapsulate the complexities of life as we know it as if he were doing something as simple and mundane as making a bowl of cereal. In the Summer of ’13 he has taken the steps to challenge his output and try his hand at something new; here I’ll slice the album apart, harvest it for its charms and offer up the gizzards to the reader in an unmerciful examination of the highs and lows of a grumpy folk artist making a shiny electropop album.
The album itself might be a little startling for long term fans, whilst the introductory tracks initially feels like some sort of odd remix blending Middleton with pop music, it quickly grows on the listener but, at times tracks like ‘Information In The Voice’ almost feel as though they were songs meant for someone else; Labyrinth perhaps. That’s not to say they’re bad songs but, they are certainly going to be alienating for anyone expecting Middleton to simply stick to the safety of doing more folk-based songs. With it that in mind, I would say that the tracks do feel more like an artist trying to reinvent and challenge himself than a Biffy Clyro/Muse-esque grasp at fame and subsequent dive into musical depravity.
‘Little Hurricane’ for example, will likely be a treat for fans of Malcolm’s earlier solo material with familiar hooks and delicacy disguised in the gooey electro-pop production. ‘Music Ticks’ is arguably the greatest example of the new style paying off on the album, the track merges some beautiful almost Sparklehorse-esque production with a kind of M83-polish and some classic Middletonisms “I don’t know where to start; this fear of learning to feel. I’m a sack of meat and a lightning bolt, I’m not mentally ill”. The resulting broth of these elements is a song reminiscent of the likes of Múm and The Postal Service but, with the idiosyncratic character of an excellent lyricist.
The title track has a lot of the key components of what I guess might be a likeable pop song and simultaneously a great folk song but, personally, I think that the blend of the two in this track amounts to something quite jarring. Malcolm’s lyrics become obscured in a dizzying electropop acid meltdown of whirl, choppy elements. The result is that the strongest element of the songwriter is ostracised from the song; Malcolm’s unique voice and phrasing is what makes him a legendary songwriter, which is perhaps why I feel as though the balance is all wrong on tracks like this. It’s funny, the highlight of the track is actually the bizarre pitch-shifting folk section at the end, the low section of this probably the most enjoyable part of the whole track.
In a similar respect, ‘Big Black Hole’ feels like it has something of an allure to it but, the production is so sickly and syrupy that the heart beneath the song is just washed away in an electronic tidal wave of sticky pop sewage. I don’t want anyone to just make the same album again and again but, I really feel like maybe this album should’ve been stripped back to an EP because as it stands a lot of stuff on here feels like it could’ve been done better in different styles, there’s no inherently bad songs or bad production but, the production does often feel disembodied from the songs it features on.
One thing Middleton has always done well is exploring the ins and outs of human relationships whilst seemingly remaining isolated from everyone else in the process. ‘You & I’ is one of the great success stories on this album; in that it is an excellent marriage of Middleton’s skills and styles. It comes off almost like a really poppy Postal Service or Death Cab For Cutie track with a delicate, melancholic, approach to a love song.
The best production on the album is arguably featured in ‘Brackets’ . The bass is incredibly endearing; I can even imagine it playing through car speakers which is usually a good sign.
‘Lullaby’ similarly glistens but, where ‘Brackets’ shines as a bold bassy production, ‘Lullaby’ shimmers with a glistening euphoria. It’s a lightly melancholy electropop daze with a kind of Dandy Warhols vibe and whilst its odd to think it’s by Malcolm Middleton, ‘Lullaby’ actually seems like a perfect for a summer’s day.
The startling new direction of the album will lead to a lot of new fans and a lot of new avenues to explore for Middleton but, the transition and the magnitude of the change will likely leave a lot of fans out of step with the artist sprinting to try and catch up. Nevertheless, Malcolm Middleton has boldly reinvented himself for better or worse but, I think his next album will be the real metric by which Summer of ’13 will come to be judged.
