With refined minimalism, and\/or miserablism, Falkirk, Scotland’s
\nArab Strap follow up their recent live album
\nMad For Sadness<\/i> with a better recording using their usual
\ncheap-o drum machines that sound quite like they’re sampled from my
\ngrandma’s organ. That’s actually a compliment, because the vintage,
\nlo-budget quality puts them officially in GBV land (Guided By
\nVoices), and that’s seldom a bad place to be. Arab Strap’s
\nsluggish, bleary-eyed tempos approach NYC’s sadly departed Swans,
\nbut they’ve proven to be a more tuneful predecessor. Swans Michael
\nGira and Strap’s Aidan Moffat both sound as though they spent the
\npast year in bed, but Arab Strap seem to feel a bit more
\ncomfortable around pop music than the Swans ever got (including
\n1987’s brilliant
\nChildren of God<\/i>).<\/p>\n
The die hard Strap fan is probably close enough to the music not
\nto notice that
\nThe Red Thread<\/i> is a wee bit darker than 1998’s
\nPhilophobia<\/i> or
\nElephant Shoe<\/i> (2000). The warmer recording this time brings
\nswollen eyes in line with the 00’s, but what is ever to be expected
\nof these rogues? Lighters-aloft love ballads? Bombast? Joy? They do
\na fantastic, sobbing, beery ballad, but it usually comes across as
\nfar too real, too
\nauthentic<\/i> to get covered by Ricky Martin.<\/p>\n
If you took the passionate audio discharge of\u2026Discharge,
\nslowed
\nwaaay<\/i> down, turn those buzzing guitars into The Hugest and
\nLast Piano on Earth and make the brazen cries of
\n“Why!?!”<\/i> into stuttered, drunken mutterings of
\n“Wha?”<\/i>… Almost there.
\nThe Red Thread<\/i> is an album that’s too good to be quickly
\nsummed up. You’ll get different things from this almost every time
\nyou hear it. Your overall state of mind is vital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":26413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6875],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37645","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-arab-strap","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37645"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}