Arab Strap - 10 Years of Tears
Aidan's track by track guide
1. PREFACE: SET THE SCENE
Speed-Date B-Side, 2006.
Originally intended as the opening track of our final studio album, The Last Romance, but voted off at the last minute, it seems more appropriate as the opening song of this compilation anyway.
2. ISLANDS (ORIGINAL 1995 DEMO)
Previously unreleased.
Recorded by Arab Strap on Stuart The Postman’s borrowed Tascam in Aidan’s bedroom sometime in 1995.
3. THE FIRST BIG WEEKEND
Our first single, 1996.
Our first album, The Week Never Starts Round Here, was already finished by the time we recorded this, but Chemikal Underground said they needed a single to test the water. We wrote this in Malcolm’s bedroom in the morning then recorded it the same afternoon. There were no spare lyrics, so Aidan just wrote down what happened at the weekend and Malcolm added the wee chorus. We were playing pool in Aidan’s Mum and Dad’s garage when we heard John Peel play it for the first time, and Aidan definitely shed a little tear. Then Steve Lamacq took a shine to it and played it every night on teatime Radio 1 for a long time. Well, a long time in Radioland. It used to hold some sort of record for most consecutive plays but we’re sure that’s since been beaten. Reached number 2 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty that year, but he said that he thought it was going to be number one so that’s good enough for us.
4. GILDED (LIVE)
Previously unreleased.
Recorded live at our very first gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, 15th October 1996 for the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1. As you can no doubt tell, our nerves were remedied with beer.
5. I SAW YOU
Previously unreleased.
This song was a regular part of our early live sets but we only ever recorded it once at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios (MV4), as part of our first proper Peel Session on March 4th 1997, broadcast 25/03/97.
6. THE CLEARING (VERSION 2)
Single, 1997.
An embellished version of a song from our first album.
7. PACKS OF THREE
Previously unreleased.
A new acoustic version of the opening track from album number 2, Philophobia, recorded live in the studio especially for this compilation.
8. (AFTERNOON) SOAPS
Single, 1998.
This should have been our last record for Chemikal Underground. We left the label after this and signed to Go Beat but unfortunately things with Go Beat didn’t really work out. There were no hard feelings, we’d just gotten use to a very hands-on way of working with Chemikal and the change was a bit scary. There’s no tracks on this compilation from that Elephant Shoe (our 3rd album) era simply because we couldn’t find any that we felt were exciting enough to include. And if Ferdy and Stephen are reading this, thank you for the good times.
9. ROCKET, TAKE YOUR TURN
Fukd ID Single, 2000.
And so we went crawling back to Chemikal and began anew. This was a single on their now defunct singles club thing, a pre-cursor to our 4th album, The Red Thread.
10. TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT
Very limited CD single, 2000.
We had a CD single made up for our Christmas shows in 2000. It was only available at the gigs, in a hand-crafted sleeve with an ink-stamped Christmas scene and wraparound sticker, which took Aidan ages.
11. TURBULENCE (BIS REMIX RADIO EDIT)
Single, 2001.
A radically altered version of the final track from The Red Thread by the sadly missed Bis.
12. THE SHY RETIRER
From Monday at the Hug & Pint, 2003.
The first track from our 5th album, not the edited single version that followed, included here because we like it.
13. BLOOD (LIVE)
Previously unreleased, 2004.
Recorded somewhere in Europe on tour, this is a full band, updated version of an acoustic song from our first album.
14. IF THERE’S NO HOPE FOR US (ROGUE VERSION)
Previously unreleased, 2004.
Before we began our 6th and final studio album, The Last Romance, we were asked to compose music for the soundtrack to a little Sci-Fi animated short film called Rogue Farm. This was a piece of music at the end of the film, when the farm has merged with the wife and launches itself into space (there’s no room to explain) and was called Blast-Off. Then we started doing demos for what would become The Last Romance, so we used it as a song. This was scrapped, possibly because Aidan comes dangerously close to rapping, and the lyrics were used for an entirely different and much more aggressive piece of music on the finished album. But now we like it.
18. WHERE WE’VE LEFT OUR LOVE
Previously released only on Japanese version of The Last Romance.
This is probably the best song we recorded for The Last Romance but it was dropped from the album for some forgotten reason. Hindsight’s a pain in the arse sometimes.
19. THE GIRL I LOVED BEFORE I FUCKED
Previously unreleased.
This song was written years ago and demoed very late one night on a dictaphone in a hotel room in Seattle sometime in 2001 after a particularly fun evening but was never attempted again until recently. Aidan was never sure that the lyrics would be received in the manner they were intended and for the first time was concerned he might offend some people. You can judge for yourself. Recorded especially for this compilation.
20. OXYTOCIN
Previously unreleased.
And before we say our goodbyes, this is where it all began. This was the first song we ever recorded together, on a dismal wet Thursday afternoon in Stuart The Postman’s front room sometime in 1995. Listen carefully and you’ll hear Aidan’s nervous laughter before he begins to recite the words and Malcolm ask “Are you finished?” before the crescendo. Some of you may recognise it - elements of the guitar part would be reused and become Piglet a couple of years later.
21. THERE IS NO ENDING
Single, 2006.
Well, actually, there is. We’ve got ten years of thank-you’s due, there are probably hundreds of people we should credit, but we’re going to narrow it down to four – Emma, Paul, Alun and Stewart – cheers.
We were Arab Strap, thank you very much and goodnight.
(*SPOILER WARNING*:
There are 2 secret tracks at the end, one of which must be listed for legal reasons - “It’s A Heartache,” written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, published by BMG Music Publishing Ltd. The second was recorded by Aidan in 1995 as a gift for Malcolm when he went to work in Mull – see pages 3 + 4 of this booklet.)