Arab Strap reunite for daring new album As Days Get Dark

: by Joe Sharratt; in Reviews; on 13 March 2021

It's been sixteen years since Glasgow duo Arab Strap last released an album, and with it announced their split after a decade of subverting the airwaves with their gritty and sometimes absurd tales. In many ways, they paved the way for acts like Sleaford Mods to take their work to the mainstream, and in this post-truth, pandemic-ridden time, it feels like a new Arab Strap album would land perfectly.

And we’re in luck, because not only have the Scottish duo, still comprised of Aiden Moffat and Malcolm Midleton, given us just that, but As Days Get Dark is quite possibly the best album the band have ever done. It’s that infectious mix of bitterness, beats, and quiet, sordid, hopelessness that is utterly compelling.

Opening track The Turning Of Our Bones lays out the agenda from start as Moffat barks the opening lyric: “I don’t give a f**k about the past / Our glory days gone by / All I care about right now / Is that wee mole inside your thigh”. Another Clockwork Day tells a bleak tale of a porn addict gratifying himself while his wife sleeps, all calmly related over gentle acoustic guitar and horns.

Kebabylon is a fantastic, dizzying, affair, new single Here Comes Comus! is a thumping pop monster, and the Fable Of The Urban Fox is a magnificent parable told over a steadily building back track made of looping acoustic guitar, tight drums and piano, with lyrics like “And the daily papers found their plight and presence most concerning / Their headlines screamed, "Enough's enough, we're overcome with vermin".

As Days Get Dark captures that can’t-help-but-look essence of Arab Strap as well or better than anything they’ve done to date. Simultaneously deeply off-putting and completely captivating, aggressive and confrontational and tender and sweet, it’s a triumph of storytelling and songwriting of the highest order.

As Days Get Dark tracklist: