Malcolm Middleton

Affirming the well-heeled granny maxim that it's the quiet ones you have to watch, Arab Strap's shy harmonist Malcolm Middleton has modestly, and gloriously, emerged as one of Scotland's greatest pop stars.

His orphic, ensorcelled electro pop and self-parodic, jangly ballads have galvanised three studio albums (not least 2005's incredible 'Into the Woods'); plus a recent, excellent rarities booty bag, 'Sleight of Heart' – which boasts, among other treats, killer covers of Madge's "Stay" and King Creosote's exquisite "Marguerita Red".

Middleton's singular chronicles of wry desolation and prosaic delight are insular and universal: his disconsolate backbeats disguise sanguine ditties; his choleric laments belie candid kindness; and all through the gloaming, his loneliness shines.