Arab Strap - The Last Romance Reviews
For the men of Arab Strap, the concept of romance has always been a favorite joke. Over the course of their discography, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton have explored romance as an abstract notion constructed of the sordid lies people tell in order to pair off and-- as Aidan put it in one variation-- "go home and make a mess." On The Last Romance, their sixth proper studio album, Arab Strap present another song cycle detailing the craggy terrain that separates gloriously tawdry, dead-end sex from more lasting, mature (i.e. boring) relationships.
But this time something wholly unexpected occurs, as the duo's notorious self-deprecating gloom here begins to lift, allowing the briefest rays of romantic comfort and satisfaction to flicker in the distance. Throughout The Last Romance, Arab Strap's more familiar lyrical themes are thankfully bolstered by their boldest and most assured music to date, as they build confidently on the advances made on 2003's Monday at the Hug & Pint. Gone entirely are their once-frequent plunky drum machines, replaced by a skillfully balanced array of piano, strings, and horns.
And though as a vocalist Moffat remains his curmudgeonly limited self, never before have his vocals been so thoughtfully integrated into Middleton's arrangements-- check the way his croon expertly mirrors the cello on "Confessions of a Big Brother"-- giving these performances an effortless, dyed-in-wool cohesion that their earlier pint-fuelled narratives sometimes lacked. Over the years, Arab Strap have recorded an astonishing number of songs set in beds with dirty sheets, so the sleazy jolt of "Stink" opens The Last Romance in well-established territory, and with Moffat's customary disinterest in foreplay.
"Strangers waking up in the Monday morning stink/ Of course I feel sick, but it's not why you think," he sings over formidably roiling guitars, postponing for a moment the album's newfound streak of tenderness. Equally uneasy are tracks like the propulsive "(If There's) No Hope For Us" and "Chat in Amsterdam, Winter 2003", a heartsick, drumless mutter which eventually opens out into impressively dissonant smears of guitar while Moffat glumly intones, "If we're having so much fun than how come I'm crying every Monday? / Is it just to cancel out the laughter from Thursday 'til Sunday?" It's on the aforementioned "Confessions of a Big Brother" that The Last Romance takes a deliberate turn, as Moffat begins to dole out the do-as-I-say-not-as-I've-done advice like a pub-bound St. Augustine: "Try and be a gentleman, always tell the truth/ I'm not just a hypocrite, I'm jealous of your youth."
Evidently taking this solemn, introspective counsel to heart, the duo move promptly through some of the most warm-hearted material in their history, starting with the affectionate pillow talk of "Come Round and Love Me" ("It's on the tips of our tongues, but who'll be the first one to say it?") and the wry, pro-monogamy pummel of "Speed Date". On the piano-driven "Dream Sequence", the album's lead single, Arab Strap-- to their everlasting chagrin, no doubt-- even approach something of Coldplay's atmospheric sweep, although Chris Martin has certainly never demonstrated Aidan's overall ability to use the word "fuck" with such invention.
Later, as the raucous, album-closing "There Is No Ending", achieves a brassy, Pogues-like swell, Moffat comes to identify romance as a curious, but welcome form of surrender: "If you can love my growing gut, my rotten teeth and graying hair/ Then I can guarantee I'll do the same as long as you can bear." And though such optimistic sentiments might initially sound jarring to those familiar with Moffat's cultivated persona as the surly bard of hungover, carnal ennui, The Last Romance should stand as proof that a little sunlight might just do Arab Strap some good.
8/10 | Matthew Murphy | pitchforkmedia
While the biggest band of the mid-90s have been quite content to re-emerge this year with a record unthrillingly unswerving from their long-established template, aggrandizing their own idleness in the process, a number of the bands that emerged in that fertile era have suddenly shown a trifle more imagination. Hence, 2005's seen a troubled Low rocketing away from their slowcore shackles, and given us the Stereophonics finally leaving the pub after all these years for the more exotic climes of 'Dakota'. And now, in a manoeuvre even more unexpected than the aforementioned, it's thrown up an Arab Strap album that, while unlikely to be mistaken for the new Rachel Stevens set by anyone at all, is the pair's Outstanding Pop Statement. Honestly.
Clearly, working apart – an endeavour that's borne most fruit on the ceaselessly amazing 'Into The Woods' – has done both Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat a power of good. They've resumed their partnership suitably galvanised and, while the Strap hadn't yet begun to sound tired as it is, there's a lot more life to this than we've heard from them before. 'The Last Romance' is decidedly brisk, clocking in at around 36 minutes, but is filled with many of the most singalong tracks they've ever recorded - and, yes, Aidan really can sing these days, in something of a dark croon, admittedly, and perhaps a slightly acquired taste, but a real leap onwards from the bleak beat poetry of previous recordings. It also includes a number of songs that wouldn't sound out of place in today's indie-friendlier fab 40, such as the recent 'Dream Sequence' single, with its lovely piano cascades, or '(If There's) No Hope For Us', which bears an uncommon resemblance to the Kaiser Chiefs' 'Modern Way' and is one of the first of their numbers that could ever finds itself in the same sentence as the words "naggingly infectious" without that being a reference to thrush or somesuch.
Most significantly of all, perhaps, is the strong female presence on this album. It's entirely explicit on the aforementioned '...No Hope...' and 'Come Round And Love Me' with their inclusion of infuriatingly uncredited (on PlayLouder's copy, at least) guest vocals, but, furthermore, after years of thwarted relationships it finally sounds in many cases here as if Moffat has turned a corner; 'Stink' admits to an unwillingness to settle for a seamier way of life in the long run, while 'Fine Tuning' is a touching take on a very committed coupling, with even parenthood being very seriously considered. Standout track 'Speed-Date', meanwhile, is joyously, unanticipatedly dismissive of swinging, cheap sex and familiar grubbiness in favour of – blimey! – a sense-of-wonder-filled love of monogamy. There's still plenty to appeal to hardcore Strapophiles, of course, like the blurrily avant-garde stylings of 'Confessions Of A Big Brother' and the uniquely dazzling accordion-and-sung and spoken-vocals-fest that is 'Chat In Amsterdam, Winter 2003', but there's no denying the more fundamental impact of this record: with 'The Last Romance', a whole lot of people are at last going to fall in love with Arab Strap for the very first time.
4/5 | Iain Moffat | www.playlouder.com