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Well, what did you expect? "Whistle a Happy Tune"? Of course, what's on offer is down in the mouth, down at heel romanticism. For all its grim imagery and misanthropy, the collective voice of Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton is, as the title implies, a romantic one. It just always stumbles over the outstretched leg of their pessimistic honesty - hopeful but congenitally unable to live with the little white lies we need to persuade ourselves and others that the cup of love is half full.
Together, their tales of ultimately lonesome lives have a harsher edge than Middleton's bordering-on-the-parodic self loathing. But in musical terms the Strap now borrow some of the more accomplished and accessible style of Middleton's songwriting tour-de-force Into the Woods (still album of the year in my book). Pianos swell where once they stumbled, strings swoop and guitars chime, horns blare even, adding some magic to the realism. The boys even break out of a mumble from time to time, albeit into a sardonic bluster that leaves you firmly anchored in reality. Still, it helps remind you that, not only are they kitchen sink poets par excellence, but Arab Strap are right up there among the most reliably excellent and honest songwriters that we have and you'd be a fool not to give this a chance.
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