Gig review: Malcolm Middleton - Electric Cirucs, Edinburgh

“SORRY you had to sit through the miserable bastard supporting me,” apologised sometime Arab Strap guitarist Malcolm Middleton. “He’s in the dressing room crying.”

He isn’t, of course. He’s right here before us, albeit under his own name rather than as the instrumental Human Don’t Be Angry side project we experienced earlier, and he’s anything but miserable, despite his best efforts to convince us otherwise.

Improbably, Falkirk’s Middleton will always find his name linked with the season of goodwill following the well-intentioned but unsuccessful attempt to usurp the Christmas No 1 spot with his existential black hole set to music We’re All Going to Die (defiantly reclaimed here as “not about dying, it’s about living”).

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To describe his set as “Christmassy” would be a severe overstatement, but there was something about this hour and a bit of brusque acoustic ballads which suited the Scottish winter.

“We live in the dark / we don’t like the light,” declared the rattling Shadows, or as the tender Love Comes in Waves had it, “love is a car with a cracked windshield... love is rain in Glasgow.” We fellow Caledonians nodded in agreement and ordered another pint.

To dwell on the mood of Middleton’s music, though, is to do an injustice to his subtle and overpowering skill as a songwriter.

Take the anthem for recessionary times Blue Plastic Bags as evidence, or his heart-stirring love/hate song to his own songwriting ability, Devil and the Angel. Or his socially conscious new single, an ode to peace and love of which John Lennon would be proud. Its name? The Whole World’s Gone to F***.

Rating: ****

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