If ever an album opener told you what to expect from the rest of it - Allatonceness does it in spades. The guitars set a blaring declamatory raunch, the drums hard edged as bullets, whilst Aidan Moffat intones over it all with his recognisable drawl, about the many types of characters who inhabit the internet these days. Reprehensible and otherwise. These have all got our attention.
They've got your attention, the fat and the furious, and your atrophied legs can't run.
They've got your attention, the juvenile jilted, derailing all discourse for fun.
They've got your attention, the slapstick insurgents, with giggles and shits and grenades.
And so he goes on, about the ones who've
'all done their own research' 'whilst Nazis and rapists sell merch'
but concludes he has to admit
'they've got my attention' 'And I think I love it'
I'm totally fine with it👍don't give a fuck anymore👍continues in this analytical vein, exploring the pros and cons of our online presence, and its associated neuroses. The increasing isolation described on Bliss. Where a woman's only way to be herself in the city, is to hide behind an aural defence barrier, whilst out walking wearing ear buds. Bliss has this electronic insistent beat of alarm behind it, with a guitar phrase entering in like a notification alert.
Arab Strap's recent renaissance, after a sixteen year album hiatus, with 2016's As Days Get Dark. Is showing no sign of being a one off. I'm totally fine with it👍 don't give a fuck anymore👍 is an excellent follow up. Building on the style As Days Get Dark introduced, whilst remaining close to the urban vampire vibe of its videos on Strawberry Moon.
What makes Arab Strap distinctive.primarily centres around Moffats impressively eviserating eloquence with words. But one must nevrr forget Malcolm Middleton, and the music he generates, the bleak settings and carefully composed contexts in which those poetic visionary nightmares are taking place. These are resolutely urban landscapes created for them to inhabit. There is something of the confessional dark night of the soul about them. What goes on in cemeteries, in the nightclubs in cellars, in the underpasses and subways between two worlds, of one chasing the other? It all takes place neath sulphurous street lights.
The character of some online realms is their discreet non relational nature. They exist outside of the norm, and refuse to come in to be a part of our real tangible world. To keep in touch with terra firma. So the darker and more nefarious impulses thrive there, like fungi growing in the darkened dank places hidden underneath the floorboards. Everything about the work Arab Strap are currently doing digs deeper into this fetid self concealing realm. It's both discomforting and yet all too familiar.
CARROT REVIEW - 6/8
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