ARAB STRAP
Mad For Sadness - (1999)

Arab Strap followed hot on the heels of Elephant Shoe (released domestically just a month before) with the stellar live recording Mad for Sadness. In many ways, the album differs little from their previous studio work. Aidan Moffat still mumbles bitingly frank -- sometimes pathetic, sometimes agonizingly romantic -- sentiments steeped in the dirty sweat of sex and regret and self-loathing. His tart tongue has always gained the most notice on Arab Strap records, and understandably, since the likes of his brutal, lustful honesty have rarely been heard in pop music quarters. The music also betrays the same dozy lope, barely raising above its sloshed, inebriated din. On the other hand, Malcolm Middleton's moody musical constructions -- sometimes punchy, sometimes hallucinatory and somnolent -- positively glisten in the live setting, and serve due notice that the most important trait of the band is its sound. Even at its darkest and most melancholy, and even stripped of words, the music would shimmer with an insistent urgency that is part drone, part ambience. The music produces its own inherent meanings and, taken on its own terms, works sinister and noir-like territory in ways that are occasionally buried under the cognitive weight of the lyrics. Eight of the ten songs on the album derive from their first two recordings. Arab Strap proves themselves capable of flawlessly replicating their spare grooves and slow burn on stage, and that further heightens the immediacy of Mad for Sadness beyond the level attained by their previous efforts. The excellent "Girls of Summer" (from the Girls of Summer U.K.-only EP), with its smoldering electric guitar leads and chaotic shimmer, is the album's high point, and the closing mutant boy-girl duet, "Afterwords" (sounding not unlike an apocalyptic Tricky song) is not far behind. But the music, in general, maintains a wonderful tension so completely that it is the most engulfing album the band has yet made. Each of Arab Strap's albums are worth owning because they are so uniformly compelling, but Mad for Sadness is perhaps the most representative album yet from the band. (allmusic.com)

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ARAB STRAP
Elephant Shoe - (1999)

All of the same words ("languid," "somnolent," "depressing," "miserable," et al.) employed to describe Arab Strap's first two efforts apply to their third as well, but a virtually imperceptible shift is afoot on Elephant Shoe — a shift that none of their previous work hinted at. If both The Week Never Starts Round Here and Philophobia were one-night stands put to music, Elephant Shoe turns out to be skeptical domestication. It is an album unmistakably touched by the vulnerability of being in love — or at least trying to love — as opposed to remembering, yearning for, or altogether avoiding it. Whereas the title of their previous album literally translated to "fear of falling in love," "elephant shoe" is a phrase uttered by Scottish youth afraid of saying, "I love you," a way of implying the sentiment while deflecting its articulation. Elephant Shoe, in a sense, then, is Arab Strap's warped way of saying those three powerful little words. That doesn't hinder the typical brutal honesty of Aidan Moffat's lyrics. Even his most peaceful and content emotions are infused with hints of violence and misgiving. He is frequently scathing, spitting out ultimatums like "If you go/Go for good," but such a breakup couplet suggests a long-term relationship in the first place. There are a fair share of cabaret-soaked moments — funereal soundscapes, mournful cello, lounge piano — but even in the face of Malcolm Middleton's beautifully forlorn electric guitar strumming, an underlying buoyancy is manifested in the use of punchy drum-machine rhythms on songs such as "Cherubs," "One Four Seven One," and "The Drinking Eye." The sex is no longer dirty, the guilt no longer flailing in the dark, and the misery no longer entirely hopeless. It is an emotional step forward that may not be an entirely convincing evolution for Arab Strap — and may, as is love's nature, prove short-lived — but it is palpable, and considering their history, it is a courageous progression. Still, the album fits in the record collection next to Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Joy Division, Portishead, the Smiths, and Tindersticks. (allmusic.com)

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