Published on Jul 3, 2003
With refined minimalism, and/or miserablism, Falkirk, Scotland’s
Arab Strap follow up their recent live album
Mad For Sadness with a better recording using their usual
cheap-o drum machines that sound quite like they’re sampled from my
grandma’s organ. That’s actually a compliment, because the vintage,
lo-budget quality puts them officially in GBV land (Guided By
Voices), and that’s seldom a bad place to be. Arab Strap’s
sluggish, bleary-eyed tempos approach NYC’s sadly departed Swans,
but they’ve proven to be a more tuneful predecessor. Swans Michael
Gira and Strap’s Aidan Moffat both sound as though they spent the
past year in bed, but Arab Strap seem to feel a bit more
comfortable around pop music than the Swans ever got (including
1987’s brilliant
Children of God).
The die hard Strap fan is probably close enough to the music not
to notice that
The Red Thread is a wee bit darker than 1998’s
Philophobia or
Elephant Shoe (2000). The warmer recording this time brings
swollen eyes in line with the 00’s, but what is ever to be expected
of these rogues? Lighters-aloft love ballads? Bombast? Joy? They do
a fantastic, sobbing, beery ballad, but it usually comes across as
far too real, too
authentic to get covered by Ricky Martin.
If you took the passionate audio discharge of…Discharge,
slowed
waaay down, turn those buzzing guitars into The Hugest and
Last Piano on Earth and make the brazen cries of
“Why!?!” into stuttered, drunken mutterings of
“Wha?”… Almost there.
The Red Thread is an album that’s too good to be quickly
summed up. You’ll get different things from this almost every time
you hear it. Your overall state of mind is vital.