Video: Malcolm Middleton: "We're All Going to Die"
Malcolm Middleton is killing 'em over in the UK with "We're All Going to Die", the morosely upbeat fourth single from the former Arab Strap half's third album, A Brighter Beat. Radio One DJs are lobbying for the Scottish singer-songwriter to capture the fabled Christmas No. 1 spot, and even competing against the likes of The Black Arts', well, "Christmas Number One" it's an easy sentimental favorite. Where we wrote that Middleton's 2005 Into the Woods "tends to indulge in songs about songs, which, like reviews about reviews, can be either a crutch or a coup, depending on execution," his latest single goes straight for loneliness and death-- and nails the execution, too.
Sad, swooping keyboards put a wintry frosting over rattling, peppy guitars and Middleton's deadpan holiday cheer: "When you can't sleep at night/ And there's no one to hold you/ Remember that I'm going through the same." And the video, directed by Tom Haines, follows a sadsack Santa stumbling around the city in his misery, gazing longingly at a female mannequin. Guess everybody knows what's on his Christmas list. BUT IT'S THE ONE THING SANTA CAN'T BRING.
[from A Brighter Beat; out now on Full Time Hobby]