The Dark Side of Love
Damon Navas-Howard | Santa Rosa, CA USA | 06/23/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"One night stands, girls that decieve, ale, clubs, cigarettes and ecstasy; welcome to the world of Arab Strap. A band the tells all(Well mostly the sad parts), not leaving out any little detail. The lead singer mumbles on the mic as if his woken up after a long night before and with a deadly hangover and the band plays on. With lyrics like "I lick her ..., as it tightens its grip." and "Talked with your ex and we agreed,thought of your sister helped us wank. ", it's not hard but to laugh at first but these guys aren't just trying to shock people's parents for a few bucks. Arab Strap live this lifestyle and put it on record, making the music seem more real. All the songs go in a singer-tells-a-story-rather-than-sing formula but the music is differnt. At the core of Arab Strap's music, is modern folk(Belle & Sebastian, etc...) with sprinkles of electronic keyboards, hip hop drums, and industrial thrashes. Arab Strap combine old with new, making a fresh sound. If you don't dig the lyrics, you can atleast just focus on the music. Stand out songs include ; "I Work In A Saloon", "The First Big Weekend"(Possibly the best Arab Strap song), "Blood", and "The Smell Of Outdoor Cooking." "The Week Never Ends Round Here" plays like an Irvine Welsh novel(Arab Strap should've done the whole soundtrack to "The Acid House") talking about youth who waste their days on ale, one night stands, and being lazy all day. If this is what you want, no one does it better than Arab Strap. They've wone me over."
Excellent, but try it first.
Damon Navas-Howard | 03/20/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I don't know if this albumn is for everyone, but I loved it. Some of the songs such as Deeper, Phone me tonight, and The First Big Weekend of the Summer, go down in my list of all time favorite tracks. I would certainly recommend listening to this albumn on a good stereo - a lot of the lyrics sound muffled on bad headphones, making the heavy accents harder to understand. The lyrics are worth it though - Pessemistic, world-weary, but honest and very personal.This albumn is more varied than some of their later stuff, and one or two tracks are just plain painful to listen to (whistling?) - You certainly can't call this albumn over-produced. This adds to the appeal, though, reflecting the lack of pretention in the music. In my opinion, this is Arab Strap's best albumn. Buy it, love it, then buy all the ones that follow. You won't regret it."