On paper, it would seem easy enough to write off 'Sleight Of Heart'. After all, it clocks in at an economical 33 minutes and mostly comprises either very unlikely covers or songs left off MALCOLM MIDDLETON'S acclaimed previous album 'A Brighter Beat'. A simple case of cleaning out the cupboard before moving on but little more than a curio, yes?
Well, no, not quite. For, while Middleton himself sees this record as a way of "using up the leftovers and tying up the loose ends", 'Sleight Of Heart' easily transcends its' rather modest billing and presents itself as a more than acceptable, if rather more acoustic-based sister piece to the, er, widescreen smash that was 'A Brighter Beat'.
Recorded at Glasgow's Chemikal Underground with most of the usual suspects in tow ( drummer Paul Savage, Mogwai's Barry Burns, backing vocalist Jenny Reeve and bassist Stevie Jones from Middleton's touring band), 'Sleight Of Heart' is another downbeat, introspective gem and after even a couple of cursory listens it soon becomes apparent that it's more than deserving of its' place in Malky's fatalistically brilliant back catalogue.
Not that anything's really changed, per se. Middleton still sings like he's simultaneously trying to shake off the remnants of both a thick head cold and a Meths hangover while the band make their usual darkly encouraging noises, although this time the arrangements are mostly relatively stripped back, allowing Malky to plump for acoustic over electric guitar and to sometimes keep the string section locked in the bog. Inevitably, the sparseness works beautifully on songs like the sarcastically defiant 'Follow Robin Down' ("there is hope...like there is hell"), the adept Bert Jansch-style picking framing 'Total Belief' ("this is shit, that is shit and bein' shit is great") and the romantic serenade that is 'Hey You' ("you'll be rich and I'll be more/ I'll come charging down your door screaming "stay with me!") which adroitly closes the album.
All of the above are primarily Malky toting his acoustic and staggering through another alcoholic dark night of the soul, but when the band join him for tunes like 'Week Off' and the tremendous 'Blue Plastic Bags' then the stars are truly espied from the gutter. 'Week Off' features several classic examples of wrist-slitting Middleton lyrical excellence ("we don't need to travel, we don't need to fly/ as you said it's two more chances to die") and is propped up by circling piano and shadowy violin, while 'Blue Plastic Bags' celebrates the joys of drinking to get drunk at home with that all-important plunder from the off-licence, or as Middleton so adeptly puts it: "six bottles of Stella, Jacob's Creek and twenty fags/ and you know there's no shame...stayin' in's the new goin' out" before rounding it all off with a great singalong chorus. It's not quite his 'Hey Jude', but you get the idea nonetheless.
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Most startling of all, though, are the three covers. Not that you'd particularly expect nuggets from Jackson C.Frank, Madonna and King Crimson's respective back catalogues to be obvious sources for creative hi-jacking where Malcolm Middleton is concerned, but - with gamely plucked banjo replacing the Frippertronics on 'Margarita Red', Malky revelling in the despair-fuelled lyrics of 'Just Like Anything' and re-works Madge's 'Stay' as a graceful piano ballad - he not only gets away with it but re-invents each one in his own inimitably sombre image.
OK, so perhaps there's nothing quite as epic and memorable as, say 'Fuck It, I Love You' or 'We're All Going To Die' here, but as supposed ragbags of cobbled together miscellaneous items and curious covers goes, 'Sleight Of Heart' is seriously impressive. Besides, at the end of a week when your reviewer has lost a friend to suicide and seen both 'Control' and 'In Bruges' within a 24 hour period it really is strangely apt.
(http://www.malcolmmiddleton.co.uk)
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