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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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Faith No More – We Care A Lot
The first Faith No More record I heard was The Real Thing. I came to this one [their 1985 debut] later. This was a continuation of being into metal and buying Kerrang! every week and it was getting a bit more left field. That's where I heard about Jane's Addiction, too. Those bands were heavy enough for Kerrang! and the playing was good enough and they were wearing the right T-shirts in their press shots. That's important. But although The Real Thing was the album I got into first, We Care A Lot's the one that I enjoy more. I think it's more adventurous. And there's different styles in there. I always think of the word 'plateau' with this record and the songs on this record, because they go along for a bit with this repetitive, tribal thing, and then they jump up, and then they go really monotonous and repetitive again. I love that.

And Charles Mosley's lyrics are really crazy. You've got no idea what he's talking about or what's going on but he paints a really good picture without there being a definitive narrative. I listened to this album again a couple of days ago and I was watching old band interviews on YouTube, and it seemed like they fucking hated each other, and they all liked different types of music and they didn't want to be in the band. But they were in this band, and they were doing this cool thing that was different, but none of them really appreciated it. It's amazing this record ever happened.