Arab Strap "The Last Romance" (Transdreamer)
By Lucas Salg
Monday. Feb 20, 11:28 AM
An unabashedly dark and savage treatise on failed relationships that works brilliantly.

Whatever those lovable Scottish pub-crawlers in Arab Strap have been drinking lately, I suggest they pour another glass because this is a damn good record! I had never thought them capable of making a record like this. I’ve always liked Aidan Moffat’s sharp lyrics (and sharper brogue), but their music has consistently mired his musings in slow songs as gloomy and monochromatic as the Glasgow skies. On their sixth record, Arab Strap have suddenly decided to go for the throat and it works, brilliantly.

The time and tempo transgressions of their previous records have been atoned for with The Last Romance, the shortest, most direct and aggressive record of their careers. Aidan’s got a few bones to pick with his paramour and he does so with ruthless candor and unsettling accuracy. And for once, Malcolm Middleton’s music not only matches but amplifies the poisonous, devastating lyrical assault with teeth-rattling live drums (a welcome presence and a sure improvement over their beloved drum machines), driving rhythms, buzzing guitars, and swelling strings. The brilliant opener “Stink” gives you a taste of what you’re in for with the introductory line “burn the sheets that we just fucked in.” As Aidan literally makes himself sick over his latest unfulfilling conquest, a maelstrom of drums and guitars swirls around him in a perfect sonic expression of his lyrical sentiment. The way everything comes together here is really just jaw-dropping.

The blessedly uptempo pace continues into the next song “If There’s No Hope For Us,” another stunner. Over a moody, expressive guitar line and a steady drumbeat, Aidan spits out a stream of consciousness lament on the tragic nature of relationships that’s both funny and heartbreaking, all the while wrapping it up in a gorgeous melody. At the end, a female voice comes in to trade a couple barbs with Moffat and the song stops short just as the lyrics suggest. I mean, this is brilliant songwriting: a near-perfect synthesis of lyrical and musical content. Thankfully, even when the pace lags through the middle portion of the album, that kind of attention to detail keeps you hooked. And there are always a few surprises in store even when it seems the boys are up to their old mopey tricks, like the erratic but perfectly deployed burst of feedback at the end of the acoustic, organ-driven “Chat in Amsterdam, Winter 2003,” or the vocals and cello falling in beautiful synch on the quietly compelling “Confessions of a Big Brother.” And the love-song-in-disguise “There is No Ending” that closes the album suggests hope for the future: both for the songs’ pessimistic narrator and for Arab Strap, whose newfound vigor and smart, confident songwriting will hopefully shape their career for years to come.

The record’s all too brief 36-minute running time and the propulsive nature of most of the tracks make The Last Romance an extremely compelling listen, the kind of record you want to start over as soon as it’s finished. That it accomplishes that feat while being an unabashedly dark and savage treatise on failed relationships is all the more impressive. I can’t do this album nearly enough justice in words, just get it and listen to it. You will be glad you did.
www.arabstrap.co.uk
www.transdreamer.com

Lucas Salg

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