Music & Words

Blending the words and wisdom of visual artist David Shrigley with the whip-smart musicianship of songwriter and Arab Strap co-founder Malcolm Middleton, Music and Words perfectly captures the pair's absurd wit and stark delivery. It's a special collaboration album that started out wrong but ended up just right. "I misinterpreted the meaning of Shrigley's words so created a certain style of music to accompany the wrong themes," admits Middleton of the album's non-existent narrative. "I took one song, 'Sunday Morning,' to be a scathing attack on the pomp and arrogance of religion, only to be informed that it's just about willies and was recorded on a Sunday morning. It makes for an interesting record though." Featuring the vocals and mimicry talent of comic actor Gavin Mitchell, the transatlantic tones of Californian friend Scott Vermeire, and actress Bridget McCann, the album was born in lieu of payment after Shrigley created artwork for Middleton's album a Brighter Beat. "I loved all the music Malcolm made," says Shrigley. "We have similar sensibilities; we're both into darkness, pathos, despair; existential things. It was just what I wanted, even though I didn't really know what I wanted." "Story Time" is the first earful from the album and boasts humor as black as the lines of Shrigley's drawings. "It's the song that started it all," Middleton recalls. "Funny, disturbing, and then a bit more disturbing. It's a beautiful song, not just a cheap shock," he says, affirming the album's subjective nature. Or, as Shrigley puts it, "The meaning is negotiable." But, as he goes on to say, gathering source material for the pair's mordant style didn't happen overnight: "Malcolm wrote the first pieces of music in 2007 so the album has taken about seven years to make... that means it must be good, right?" CD artwork by David Shrigley.