Reviews

The dynamic duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, collectively known as Arab Strap, are back with another full length album.  The duo, originally out of Falkirk, Scotland, are now beginning their 11th year together, and with their 6th studio LP, appropriately titled The Last Romance, one will be hard pressed to be disappointed.  Like all their previous releases, The Last Romance is chock-full of images of lost love, hatred of love, misogyny, lust, and shameful acts of sex.  Not much in terms of spreading their wings, but Arab Strap stays true to what they know and the things that are a large part of their life.  They are not afraid to open up and express themselves freely, both lyrically and musically.  These are songs that anyone can relate to, unequivocally.

However, The Last Romance also showcases a power duo that is quickly coming into its own, maturing as artists and beginning to meld their artistic insights with fervent, melodic, feverish, and honest musicianship, a blending of one end of the emotional spectrum with the other.  What emerges from this is a dissident within the machine of the music industry.  Songs such as “Confessions of a Big Brother,” are evidence of growth and maturity, as one man looks back on his life while he gives advice to a younger brother about love, sex, and relationships, attempting to sway him from making all the same mistakes.

There are many great tracks on this album and it seems to get better the further along it goes.  A few highlights are “Come Round and Love Me,” a slow moving groove about uncertainty and desire, and “Don’t Ask Me to Dance,” where ‘dance’ is a metaphor for love and the song is about fear of intimacy because of the possibility of getting hurt; dark, unearthly guitar and synthetic claps anchor the song and bring it to its resolution; it gives the feeling such as in a film when a character just realizes something tragic has happened.  These are two songs that when they come to an end you wish they hadn’t.  The entire album is full of beautiful arrangements which incorporate, strings, synthesized drum tracks, piano, and horns, among others.  Three acoustic ballads are also thrown in for good measure.  One such ballad is “Go Back to the Sea,” a haunting song about betrayal, desperation, and suicide.

Moffat’s monotone singing adds too much of the albums mystique of fear, uncertainty, and melancholy, giving much support to the overall characterization of the music.

Never one’s to be lured away from their art for the shameful glory of fame and money, Arab Strap has managed over the past ten years to keep their artistic integrity and do things their way and on their own terms.  The Last Romance is no exception.