It seems like only a few months ago that there was an ill-fated, though entirely well-intentioned, campaign on popular young people’s stalking tool Facebook for Malcolm Middleton‘s cheery doom and gloom singalong “We’re All Gonna Die” (from the album) to be the Christmas number one. Actually, it was about eighteen months ago, but in that time the lad from Falkirk’s been busy, with another album, Sleight Of Heart last summer, and already yet another, Waxing Gibbous, released now.
It’s a corker- it opens with “Red Travellin’ Socks”, a scorching piece of indie rock with a piano line that sounds like it’s been lifted from Bruce Springsteen‘s Dancing In The Dark and put to good use in a song that has all the Middleton trademarks – the wholesomely prosaic (travelling socks?), heartbreak, loss and self-deprecatory humour (“I’m out of money and I’m sick of these songs”). Oh, and a cracking good tune, something he’s becoming increasingly adept at creating since the more abstract days of Arab Strap.
While the main focus of the album is the songs (he’s a songwriter first and foremost) the album as a whole is musically very diverse and inventive, mixing and matching from all kinds of amazing influences- the opening part of “Box And Knife” sounds like it could be Brian Eno (like a cross between “Bonebomb” and something off NerveNet) before turning into something that could almost be described as “new romantic folk” if you were ever in need of a wanky phrase to sum up an entirely fictional genre consisting to date of one song. “Ballad Of Fuck All” has a guitar line reminiscent of early Leonard Cohen and some lovely choral-sounding backing, while “Shadows” rocks out quite fantastically, building to an incredibly epic chorus, all soaring guitar and drum rolls. Stripped of the vocals, “Stop Doing Be Good” wouldn’t be out of place on one of the more mournful and chilled Bad Seeds albums, and while “Kiss At The Station” has a chorus I haven’t been able to get out of my head all week, it’s truly notable for the middle passage, where it starts doing a fairly passable impression of Talking Heads without warning, before launching straight back into that chorus.
For me, though, the highlight is the part-spoken “Carry Me”, wherein he laments the dullness of everyday life, dreaming of better things- “Every day I check for my superpower or special ability, but it’s still in the post, I know it is. And every day I try to use the Force, and the belief that I can fly will never leave”. In many ways, it harks back to the Arab Strap days, but built into a folkier, fuller sound. It also contains my favourite line from a song so far this year, and the one with which I shall leave you- “I’m sorry that I missed Bowie’s Changes – I saw him dancing with his red shoes on and dismissed him as a cunt”.
-Deuteronemu 90210 with a six-pack of Red Stripe–
