MALCOLM Middleton, the guitar yin to Aidan Moffat’s vocal yang in Scottish indie legends Arab Strap, is thinking back to 1996, to when the Falkirk band released their first single and played their first gig.

“Twenty years, eh?” he says ruefully. “Twenty years since we started, 10 since we split. It’s just depressing, makes you feel really old.”

‘Depressing’: now, there’s a word that’s been thrown in Middleton’s direction more than once over the years. And while he’d be the first to admit that his solo singer-songwriter lyrics, on top of Arab Strap’s fabled tales of Scottish life, have an affinity for downbeat emotions, I’d argue that he’s actually one of the most overlooked pop tunesmiths working in Scotland today.

Break My Heart and Loneliness Shines from 2005’s Into The Woods; We’re All Going To Die and F*** It I Love You from 2007’s A Brighter Beat. Those four songs alone are brilliantly infectious and melodically upbeat – but you can see the problem with where Middleton’s coming from in the titles themselves.

However, I think this juxtaposition of opposing elements has always been the best thing about his work – and it’s taken even further on his new album, Summer Of ’13. Finally, Malcolm Middleton has made a full-on pop record with EDM beats, electronica programming and production polish by Julian Corrie, the man who records as Miaoux Miaoux.

Not all of the early reviews seem to have ‘got’ what Middleton is doing here. Yes, the lyrics and vocal delivery have the same dry demeanour as before, but the music positively glistens. And even when, on certain tracks, simple melody is pushed aside for brave experimentation, the variety of textures bring to mind the two albums and one EP he released in post-rock guise as Human Don’t Be Angry in the seven-year period between the new record and 2009’s Waxing Gibbous. Make no mistake: Summer Of ’13 is a Malcolm Middleton album through and through.

“It was always planned to be a pristine pop album but with a bit more depth to the lyrics,” he explains. “I pretty much recorded all the music and did the programming before I gave it all to Julian with the idea that he would give it better sounds, tweak the production and add his own stuff.”

Middleton wrote and recorded the album over a period of around five years, during which he got married, moved to the East Neuk of Fife and became a father. Perhaps that’s why there are a few glimmers of light in some of his lyrics, particularly the lovely image conjured up by the line “You and I still dancing when the songs are finished” from You & I. That’s a long way from the defeatism of “You’re going to break my heart, I know it” from all those years ago.

“But both songs are about the same person,” he smiles. “Yeah, it’s getting reflected in some of them because the writing took such a long time. Some of the earlier stuff was darker. It’s a cliché but I usually only write when I’m feeling a certain way and I became aware that it was becoming a Malky Miserablist caricature of my songwriting.

“I’ve just come back from the nursery run. I’ve got a son now and my life is amazing. In the summer of 2013 my son was six months old, and that’s when I first started doing full-time father duties as my wife went back to work – so that seemed like a good album title.

“There are lots of positive things coming through. It’s just that it will take a while to catch up with my songwriting.

“The downside of that is that I haven’t actually written a song in about two years. I haven’t had the need or desire to.”

That album title, Summer Of ’13, is public acknowledgement of private resolution. And there are tunes here that, as the saying goes, are the sound of the summer.

“It’s just that it’s a Scottish summer, with a big black rain cloud on the horizon. This time, though, I think it’s receding rather than coming closer.

Summer Of ’13 is released tomorrow through Nude Records. Malcolm Middleton plays Dundee’s Beat Generator tonight, Glasgow’s Art School tomorrow and Edinburgh’s Electric Circus on Saturday.