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Baker's Dozen

Summer 13: Malcolm Middleton's Favourite Albums
Nicola Meighan , July 13th, 2016 08:42

Following the release of his sixth album, Summer Of '13, and before Arab Strap play their anniversary gigs later this year, the musician talks Nicola Meighan through the records that have had the biggest effect on him

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Cass McCombs – Dropping The Writ
I got into Cass McCombs and Matt Baldwin at the same time. Viking Moses put up a link to Cass McCombs doing a song called 'Windfall', and that was the song that made me go and look for the record. There's loads and loads of amazing songs on it, although nothing's quite as good as 'Windfall'. But it's another one of those timing things. Usually I like music, and I like words, but words can come and go. But with this record, the lyrics seemed to mirror what I was thinking and feeling at the time. I don't normally pay that much attention to lyrics but I did with this.

When you're older, you're less open. And there was a turning point in my early thirties when I realised that the people whose music you're listening to, they're all younger than you now. And there's a wee bit of a wobble that comes with that, where you're like, you're not having it. But then you let it go. It's a combination of things with this record as well though, because if his melodies weren't so good, I wouldn't be giving a fuck about what he was saying. It still needs to have all the right elements in place.