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Arab Strap | The Red Thread

CD, Chemikal Underground/Konkurrent

Tekst: Alex Tobin

Publicatiedatum: 19 maart 2001

"Gee but it's great to be back home/Home is where I want to be." These are the opening lines of Simon and Garfunkel's 1970 song 'Keep the Customer Satisfied'. And, much like that other poetry-waxing duo from the East Coast of the USA, Falkirk's Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton are very much relieved to have their feet under their own coffee tables once more. After two albums for major label Go!Beat (1999's live 'Mad for Sadness' and 'Elephant Shoe'), coupled with the inevitable dictated-from-above limitations of their artistic and musical freedom, the thinking man's boozers made their welcome return to Glasgow's Chemikal Underground label. 'The Red Thread', the band's fifth full-length album, is the result, and - it can be said from the start - it's easily their best, most diverse record yet. 'Amor Veneris' kicks things off, fuelled by a haunting, lilting, and utterly beautiful piano motif supplied by Barry Burns. And, while it's clear from the beginning that Arab Strap have not exactly abandoned their trademark inconsolable seamy-side-of-love/lust sound, they most certainly have invested in melodies this time around, creating a rich tapestry of aural bliss. 'Last Orders', describing the often disturbing and resigned tete-a-tete of sex and drink, is the first true highlight on an album full of surprises. Crashing in with 'Bullet the Blue Sky'-style drums, it soon becomes clear that there is much, much more to these starkly simple recurring guitar lines. Aidan Moffat's lyrics have never been as depressing, yet as gutwrenchingly honest as in 'The Devil-Tips', a song about getting his little brother ready for their father's funeral. Moffat lost his father at the age of 18, and never before have Arab Strap lyrics looked so naked and fragile as on the printed page of the CD booklet. 'Love Detective', the first single, is the only true spoken-word track on this record, and it comes packaged with a sophisticated-as-fuck Channel 4 crime special melody, providing the main pulse in this jugular beat of a song. Soaring strings and crashing, desultory drums take us straight into 'Haunt Me', and here Aidan Moffat disproves yet another favourite detractors' theory: that he can't really sing. Things conclude with the over eight minute-long 'Turbulence', which is the sound of an Ecstasy-fuelled night on the tiles, muted with the apathy of someone who's been to one too many all-nighters. Great credit has to go to Malcolm Middleton, for providing extremely intriguing, yet simple melodies. In fact, that's Arab Strap's strong point this time around: The core of the songs is kept exposed, allowing fragments to drift in and out of your subconscious, as if in a lazy, hazy daze. With 'The Red Thread', Moffat and Middleton finally prove that they're not the cliched Irvine Welshian loutish lads, shouting "lager lager lager" at the top of their lungs. This might not be soul music, but it's definitely music with a soul.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/arab-strap/the-red-thread/250/
Meer Arab Strap op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/arab-strap