Data may be outdated
Data has never been updated — Click refresh to get the latest statistics.
In 2003, Malcolm Middleton, the member of Scottish indie pop group <a href="spotify:artist:6g8Jqb5JMfv92eB2r0awTN">Arab Strap</a> regularly credited with "most things musical," released the cumbersomely titled solo album 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine, issued through <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Chemikal+Underground%22">Chemikal Underground</a>. It was the beginning of a prolific solo career for the Falkirk native who followed it up with the more focused Into the Woods in 2005. Neither album was a tremendous departure from his work with <a href="spotify:artist:7zYJsSA3SfPKvFyP80zLmL">Aidan Moffat</a> (both lyrically and sonically), though the songwriting was occasionally more self-absorbed, oozing with self-doubt, heartache, and dour wit. A year after <a href="spotify:artist:6g8Jqb5JMfv92eB2r0awTN">Arab Strap</a>'s amicable split in 2006, he signed with the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Full+Time+Hobby%22">Full Time Hobby</a> label, releasing the schizophrenic A Brighter Beat. The album's fourth single was an offbeat rock tune called "We're All Going to Die." Though it was most certainly not a holiday song, it became the subject of a quirky social media campaign to make it Britain's number one Christmas single for 2007 after it was given a whopping 1000/1 odds against doing so by respected London bookmaker William Hill. After being championed by BBC 1's Colin Murray, the song did reach a fairly respectable number 31, raising Middleton's profile significantly in the process. The relatively low-key Sleight of Heart was released in 2008, followed by the more whimsical Waxing Gibbous a year later. During tours for Waxing Gibbous, Middleton announced that he intended to retire from releasing music under his own name. A 2012 album released under the quirky moniker <a href="spotify:artist:6eMkOxnOi75NtqRIZESvAo">Human Don't Be Angry</a> confirmed this, though he did attach his name to a 2014 spoken word collaboration with visual artist <a href="spotify:artist:5mSHDrwbyAhkLI60hegpNq">David Shrigley</a> called Music and Words. Abandoning the <a href="spotify:artist:6eMkOxnOi75NtqRIZESvAo">Human Don't Be Angry</a> guise, he returned to solo business, working with Glaswegian electronic producer <a href="spotify:artist:1WIjei769mW4VVrM9VsauL">Miaoux Miaoux</a> and former Fence Collective act <a href="spotify:artist:1UlX97eNJaB5fbmvxEldiC">Gordon Anderson</a> to record the electro-inspired Summer of '13, which actually came out in the summer of 2016. ~ Andy Kellman & Timothy Monger, Rovi