Summer of ’13 is the sixth solo album from Malcolm Middleton and sees him exploring a new musical backdrop to pin his sometimes gloomy, sometimes vaguely hopeful songs onto.
Having focused the majority of his solo career on acoustic guitar-based songs, a change in scenery to an apparently haunted clock tower in Fife has maybe surprisingly, brought about an electronic, wonky-pop sound to Summer of ’13. It’s a welcome, invigorating change to Middleton’s songwriting. Nothing in his style has particularly altered – there are still the coarse and wry musings – but against this musical shift these concepts work in a fresh new light.
Songs like opener ‘Steps‘ are packed heavily with almost Euro-Pop tropes: euphoric string sounds, break-downs, spoken-word parts, and the brilliantly cheesy slide pre-chorus lead-ins. And the track ‘Little Hurricane‘ was apparently written for an alternative universe episode of Dawson’s Creek. These are fun pop songs that are maybe undermined – like it could be said for the album as a whole – by their length. There is, in parts, too much repetition, but it’s where Middleton gets wordy that this album really breathes.
‘Big Black Hole‘ is a beautifully touching song addressed to his son, in which he relays some life advice about love and loneliness. He proclaims in the refrain “We’ll always be alone,” but offers “You’re never gonna be alone if there’s a copy of this song handy / and some futuristic retro DJ’s a fan of me”.
This less laconic moment is a highlight of Summer Of ’13. However, as throughout the elements of psychedelic electronica drown Middleton out, and the songs seem to lose their intended focus. Tracks like ‘Lullaby‘ and ‘Like John Lennon Said‘ meander, whilst ‘You & I‘ feels like an experiment rather than a song, which betrays the poignancy of its message.
Yet, again there are saving graces that allow the perfect matching of what Middleton is great at with this new direction. He’s always had a penchant for the tongue-in-cheek, and the blunt-for-comedy effect whilst emitting sincere emotion and plaintiveness. This off-kilter, left-field sound can sit perfectly with this – such as on the title track, which evokes a dour ‘Cotton-Eyed Joe’ – before moving onto becoming aggressive, distorted and having it’s melody punctuated by a ringtone-sounding synthesiser that is haywire.
Summer of ’13 is an interesting experiment from Middleton. It’s a nearly, but not quite as far as trying out, new sound that frankly may well be worth it if he can manage to add more direction in future endeavours.
https://soundcloud.com/malcolmmiddleton/01-steps
