My Album Of The Year

[Johnny]

If you are anything like me you will have purchased stacks of albums over the years that just don't cut the mustard or live up to they hype.

I go along with Morrissey and Weller and say that the humble 45" remains my favourite format of music.

Countless times I have heard an excellent song by a band and swept out to buy the album it is on only to be punctured by a wave of disappointment to realise that the song I heard is the only decent song on the album.

Worse of course is when a friend lets you borrow an album they are raving about.They insist you play it loud and often whilst maintianing it will blow you away.
You are crushed to hear what sounds like a 5th form band plodding through some particularly bad prog rock covers.

Ar best I think about 90% of albums i I hear have only about 3 or 4 good songs on them.

This weekend though I have had a much more unusual experience.A friend thrust a copy of the album "Into The Woods" by Malcom Middleton into my hand with the instruction that I drop everything else I was listening to and play this.

Now I know of Middleton's career with Arab Strap.I'm not a huge fan but had really lost sight of them this last few years so it came as a major surprise to hear the best album I have heard in yonks.

If you think the art of lyric writing is over then the fragile beauty of this album will make you want to hug your postman in the morning.

You have been warned.

 

[Codreanu]

> Ar best I think about 90% of albums i I hear have only about 3 or 4 good
> songs on them.

> This weekend though I have had a much more unusual experience.A friend
> thrust a copy of the album "Into The Woods" by Malcom Middleton
> into my hand with the instruction that I drop everything else I was
> listening to and play this.

> Now I know of Middleton's career with Arab Strap.I'm not a huge fan but
> had really lost sight of them this last few years so it came as a major
> surprise to hear the best album I have heard in yonks.

> If you think the art of lyric writing is over then the fragile beauty of
> this album will make you want to hug your postman in the morning.

> You have been warned.

Woke up again today
Realized I hate myself
My face is a disease...

Ah, a true friend indeed! I would hardly declare it album of the year though. Be sure to pick up a copy of his debut -- "5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine" -- by all accounts a superior release.

Strapped for Happiness

After years spent turning out the music to accompany Aidan Moffat’s merciless sermons, Malcolm Middleton (Arab Strap’s multi-instrumentalist) finally penciled in some studio time for himself. His first solo effort, 5:14 fluoxytine seagull alcohol john nicotine is a 12-song journey through the depths of his besieged mind that both expands his musical breadth and challenges Moffat’s crown for lyrical supremacy.

5:14 fluoxytine seagull alcohol john nicotine finds Middleton crying face-down in the same spilled lager that Moffat’s been threatening to nod off in since the early 90’s but where Moffat turns his aggression outward – implicating everyone from ex-girlfriends, to current girlfriends, to other people’s girlfriends in the grand scheme to prolong his sadness – Middleton discovers there’s no greater evil than himself. He spends the majority of 5:14… telling us how much of a f***-up he is. On “Wake Up” he wastes no time confessing, “and I’ll do the best I can but I’m a liar / I don’t have a plan / and I’ll do the best for you but I’m hopeless / I don’t have a clue.” He saves his harshest criticism for the albums’ closer “Devil & The Angel” where he whimpers over a solo acoustic guitar, “I’m dishonest and dirty / I just don’t have a life / and I’ll never amount to anything / I’ll never achieve anything / I’ll never be good at anything / and my songs are shite.” Poor bastard. With a self-concept like his, who needs enemies?

After the all-to-familiar gloom and doom vibe of “Crappo The Clown” and the God-awful wailing that destroys the chorus of “Wake Up” are laid to rest, the album settles in for one of the more pleasurable listening experiences of the year. “Best In Me,” the rare instance where Middleton isn’t flogging himself for lying or surrendering to his most base desires, is a song that even the Reindeer Section – with their wellspring of talented Scots – could never write. It’s a perfect solo-record song because it’s so damn personal and revealing. Middleton funnels his depression to the side for a moment and musters the courage needed to confess that his heart hasn’t gone completely black in his chest.

That any hope at all exists must ultimately trouble Middleton. For if tiny glimmers of a better life never shone through, his mood would almost be justified. If everything perished at once, it would alleviate the need to care at all. But seeing that this world persists in small doses, threatening only at the edges to fall apart, Middleton curls himself around an ever-dissolving center, caring just enough to ensure his continued unhappiness.

By John Yandrasits

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/492