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"Malcolm Middleton has already released four albums as the guitarist with Arab Strap; one listen to his debut solo album and you wonder why he didn't kick Aidan Moffat from the microphone years ago. Where Moffat mumbles morosely, Middleton has a warm, immediately engaging voice that makes even his saddest songs sound strangely joyful.

He has a real knack for marrying self-deprecating lyrics with dancing, luminous melodies: "I'm hopeless, I don't have a clue," he booms on Wake Up, guitar and drums clattering exuberantly.

The Loneliest Night of My Life Come Calling, meanwhile, has the tipsy boldness of a fabulous drinking song. "I'll never be good at anything and my songs are pish," Middleton frets in Devil and the Angel. He couldn't be more wrong"
The Guardian


"No one could have doubted the emotional state of Aidan Moffat on listening to Arab Strap. Less clear, perhaps, was how his sidekick Malcolm Middleton distilled that state so perfectly into music.

Middleton answers that on 5.14, a record so woebegone and ridden with self-doubt it's a wonder he eve manages to get out of bed. he's cavalier with ideas here: the sorrowful, piano-soaked Crappo the Clown builds into a lovely sweeping chorus. the endearingly noisy Wake Up, sounds as though it was bashed out in the pub.

He staggers through his wet and broken bedsit songs half weeping and half laughing and for a record built from emotional wreckage, it's full of life and soul"
Metro