Photograph courtesy of JP Wright
In 2012, I visited Malcolm Middleton in his rural Fife cottage for the Quietus. He made me tea and jubilee cakes; I gave him a Pat Benatar picture disc. He seemed pretty happy and, four years on, I realise that he wasn’t faking. Benatar makes an early appearance in Middleton’s Baker’s Dozen, which traces his childhood, school holidays, his tenure in Arab Strap, the intentions for his semi-instrumental alter ego Human Don’t Be Angry, and of course his myriad solo records – the latest of which, the brilliant Summer Of ’13, came out last month.
"These are the records that I’ve listened to most or that have had the biggest effect on me, and they’re roughly in the order I heard them," he says of his choices. "They’re not necessarily all great albums. It depends where you are at the time, what you’ve listened to previously, what you’re into, what age you are, and what’s going on in your life. One thing I’ve realised is that with a lot of the music I’ve picked for this, heavy metal and otherwise, you need to have the right suspension of disbelief. Sometimes you have to bend your expectations. Sometimes the records do it for you."
Summer Of ’13 is out now on Nude Records. Malcolm Middleton plays Green Man festival on August 21 and Arab Strap play Brixton Electric in London on October 13 (sold out), the Ritz in Manchester, 14, and Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, 15 (sold out) and 16; for full details and tickets, head to Middleton’s and the band’s websites. Click on his image below to begin scrolling through Malcolm’s choices, which run in no particular order
