Product Description

The first full-length by Scottish miserabilists Arab Strap is a dark-toned collection of acoustic guitars, hushed vocals, occasional electronics (mostly tape loops and vague trip-hop beats), lo-fi aesthetics and nakedly personal lyrics. Singer Aidan Moffat sounds so genuinely aggrieved on songs like "General Plea To A Girlfriend", "Deeper" and the self-lacerating "Kate Moss" that paying close attention to the lyricsmakes the listener vaguely uncomfortable, as if they're inadvertently eavesdropping on an emotional conversation at thenext table. Later albums like PHILOPHOBIA were more focusedand melodically stronger-and if anything, even darker--but in its own scattershot way, THE WEEK NEVER STARTS AROUND HERE is a more powerful record. Fans of Joy Division and Palacemay find Arab Strap a worthy successor to those mope-rock giants.

Track Listing

1. Coming down
2. The clearing
3. Driving
4. Gourmet
5. I work in a saloon
6. Wasting
7. General plea to a girlfriend
8. The first big weekend
9. Kate Moss
10. Little girls
11. Phone me tonight
12. Blood
13. Deeper

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23728 in Music
• Released on: 1996-11-25
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Don't try and tell me this album ain't pretty
This is the sound of a young band trying to find themselves, but this leads to a really varied album, with very few tracks missing the mark.
If you know Arab Strap, then you'll know what to expect, only here you'll find rougher edges and more vocals from guitarist Malcolm Middleton.
If you don't know Arab Strap, then this is a "lo-fi" record, for want of a better term. Glossy production values are not high on the agenda. Instead, you get honest, bleak, funny lyrics spoken and whispered over a background of drum machine beats, jagged electric guitar, stomping drums and acoustic strumming in turn.
The album contains tracks such as "First Big Weekend", "Kate Moss", "I work in a Saloon" and "Driving" that still rank amongst the best things that the Strap have produced.
If you looking for a Justin Timberlake record, you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for a record about the way it feels to be sad, to be drunk, to be horny, to really laugh, then step right up.

Don't try and tell me this album ain't pretty
I couldn't agree less with the review posted above/below/whatever. True, this is the sound of a young band trying to find themselves, but this leads to a really varied album, with very few tracks missing the mark.
If you know Arab Strap, then you'll know what to expect, only here you'll find rougher edges and more vocals from guitarist Malcolm Middleton.
If you don't know Arab Strap, then this is a "lo-fi" record, for want of a better term. Glossy production values are not high on the agenda. Instead, you get honest, bleak, funny lyrics spoken and whispered over a background of drum machine beats, jagged electric guitar, stomping drums and acoustic strumming in turn.
The album contains tracks such as "First Big Weekend", "Kate Moss", "I work in a Saloon" and "Driving" that still rank amongst the best things that the Strap have produced.
If you looking for a Justin Timberlake record, you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for a record about the way it feels to be sad, to be drunk, to be horny, to really laugh, then step right up.

3 great songs
Most of this album is really, really, really bad. So awful in fact that it makes me feel nauseous just thinking about. It sounds like it was recorded in their parents living room; with a cheap stereo, a guitar which isn't tunned properly and their 3 year old baby brother banging on his potty with a wooden spoon for the drums. Some of the lyrics are worse than your average high school english class, they just make you cringe.

However having said, the album contains perhaps the three most beautiful songs i've heard in my entire life. the Clearing, First Big Weekend Of The Summer and Deeper. I still remember the first time i heard 'first big weekend of the summer', on the John Peel show i was just amazed, (and it usually takes me a good few listens before i like a new band) The lyrics are intelligent, emmotional, spiteful, cruel and personal, the music is weird, sad and creative. Arab Strap don't really borrow from anyone so it's hard to compare them to another band, I guess the closest link would be the Fall. They have a real lazy feel, the guitars and the vocals kinda stumble along I guess they could even be considered a very evil, nasty, ugly verson of Belle and Sebastien.

Buy this album now! but remember to program your CD player to only repeat tracks 2, 8 and 13.