Malcolm Middleton - Sleight Of Heart

by Dave Evans

Malcy's been dumped again. He's down the pub again. He's written some songs again. This is a good thing.

"‘Blue Plastic Bags’ tells of a nation of slow burning alcoholics sloping off home with bottles of Jacobs Creek and Stella Artois. There’s no preaching, no telling off, just simple world weary observation."

Malcolm Middleton’s new album begins with a playful nod to Iggy Pops ‘Passenger’, but instead of referencing a journey through "the city’s ripped backsides" a la James Jewel Osterberg, Malcy prefers to tell us all about a night out on the sauce, a week off work going nowhere and staying in listening to Fleetwood Mac.

Following on from his impressive ‘Brighter Beat’ album and that crack at the xmas number one spot, this is an altogether more stripped-down affair. Mostly acoustic (though Barry Burns from Mogwai chips in with some fine piano work), full of the now trademark self-loathing and doubt infused lyrics.

‘Blue Plastic Bags’ tells of a nation of slow burning alcoholics sloping off home with bottles of Jacobs Creek and Stella Artois. There’s no preaching, no telling off, just simple world weary observation. “We overdid the good times / Now we can’t sleep at night” being one of many lyrics those of us who’ve partied too hard in the past can identify with. For a song about addiction and the fight against the dying of the light, it’s paradoxically uplifting but of course this is the way that Middleton works. The self-pity always leavened with some gallows humour even on something seemingly as bleak as ‘Total Belief’ which contains the lines "I hate everything I make / This is shit and that is shit and being shit is great".

On the surface, all this wallowing in feelings of unworthiness should get tiresome very quickly. It is to Malcolm’s great credit that this rarely happens. The tempo changes don’t vary a great deal, he sings every song in a sulky Falkirk brogue, there’s little sonic invention yet somehow he keeps getting away with it. Maybe there’s something rare and endearing about someone pouring their heart out to you and cracking a few gags along the way. Promoting alcoholism or not NN would love to join him for a beer or five.

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