Waxing Gibbous is a lot of things in reflection of Malcolm Middleton: it is momentous, charging, optimistic and jubilant, girded, lovely, sweet and unstressed, innocent, tongue-in-cheek, energized and at peace. All this from a man who once proclaimed how Mad he was for Sadness.
There’s a great relief present here, the sort that comes from triumph over defeat - even the lonely bleeps of bachelorhood chirp with romantic hope. Ignorance translates to blissful knowledge of his own faults. He’s humbled, not haunted, healthy enough to acknowledge darkness is normal. All sadness herein allows for a change of heart.
On the standout track, “Subset Of The World”, he declares he’s singing again, as if it’s miraculously easy to be so mature. He’s in such a good place that to say his arrival is a mystery would somehow decrease the joy of it. For better or worse, he’s found contentment, and every buzzing turn reiterates that beautiful wisdom.