Mogwai – As the Love Continues/Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark – reviews

Scottish Indies

What a week for Scottish independent music. Last week saw the latest magnum opus from Mogwai claim the number one album in the UK, with the magnificence of As the Love Continues This week sees the welcome return of Aidan and Malcolm. Their new masterwork, As Days Get Dark, of course, released as days start to get lighter and we crawl out of the depths and darkness of winter.

Both albums are a joy to behold, music is my solace, no more so than in the last couple of months, and these two albums will be a refuge to raise the spirits in any moments of darkness in coming months. Some may try to tell you that Arab Strap are the ultimate doomsayers. Listen not to one word that emits from their mouths. As Days Get Dark is packed with wry humour and some soul saving uplifting sounds. More of that later…

As the Love Continues…

Mogwai’s album kicks off with the title of the opening track uttered in louche spoken word, feeling like it should be a quote from Withnail & I. The track creeps into your consciousness with its enchanting keyboard intro, before layers of sound build to an epic soundscape of distorted guitars, affecting electronic rhythms and crashing cymbals. That is how to open an album. From then on there is is no looking back.

Electronic bleeps and blips announce the arrival of Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever, more epic distorted rhythms creating a vast cinematic wall of sound. Dry Fantasy with its expansive keyboards and sweeping shimmering cadence showers you with a feeling of calm.

Soundtracks

Mogwai have perfected their cinematic sound over their 30 years in the business, producing perfect soundtracks to several TV shows and films over the years, most recently on the latest offering from the producers of Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero.

Having preceding the album’s release, Richie Sacramento just gets better each time you hear it. The only song, as such, on the album hears Stuart take to the mike and provides an added heartfelt warmth to the proceedings in tribute to the late David Berman.

Crescendo

The band go into full drone rock mode on Drive the Nail while Fuck Off Money has a digitally enhanced electronic vocal topping off the meandering pulsating flow before it rises to its crescendo. Then most unexpectedly, Ceiling Granny had me pogo-ing and air-guitaring in the kitchen. Undoubtedly the warm and rich tone helps make this the most joyous romp on the album.

The last third of the album kicks of slowly and serenely before developing into a squally cacophony of strings, while the epic Pat Stains adds saxophone to its intense surge. Penultimate track Supposedly, We Were Nightmares with its dynamic choppy rhythm, avant-garde keyboards and lively bass is certainly one of the album highlights before they close out proceedings with the overall haunting beauty of It’s What I Want to Do Mum and its several passages showcasing a variety of mighty peaks.

Mogwai – website

As Days Get Dark

And then there was Arab Strap.

And I’m not going to lie, I was more than a little bit excited to hear this album. The three singles preceding its release were perfect teasers and a taste of what was to come.

Fittingly, for a band releasing the first album in 16 years, the album opens with the dark and majestic The Turning of Our Bones. A song about death and resurrection. Rumours of this band’s demise were grossly exaggerated. There is life yet in this duo, and that’s not the worms eating their rotting flesh. Malcolm’s warmly sympathetic playing, and the singing strings see this song soar and fly as they pair rise to rule again.

Epic Storyteller

Moffat is an epic storyteller. I could listen to his his warm timbre for hours on end. Of course the stories aren’t as warm and cosy as his benevolent tone suggests. The seedy Another Clockwork Day attesting to that with the male partner in a now seemingly loveless relationship finding his literal release in viewing personal old risque photographs, having dismissed DIY porn and a wife who is sleeping soundly in their matrimonial bed.

The second single from the album Compersion Pt 1, has Middleton on top form, almost Fall like in the playing. While the debauchery you would expect in any work from Arab Strap is present and correct in Kebabylon, a sinister keyboard atop drum machine and sonorous guitar.

Poignancy

There are so many highlights on this album. Piognancy abounds on Tears on Tour with its touching opening couplets. However, there is an element of dark humour in there too, as he lists all the things that make him cry. I had a wry smile as I he mentioned The Muppet Movie and Frozen. I can picture my kids slyly checking along the row in the cinema to see if I was crying… This is what I meant earlier. Don’t let anyone tell you Arab Strap are depressing. Black humour abounds throughout their songs. and there is something ultimately uplifting about their music. It makes you feel real and alive.

Musically, Here Comes Comus is almost goth-like in its delivery. shadowy guitars, thumping drums, gloomy bass. This tale of the god of festivity is definitely one of Arab Straps heavier songs, as Moffat warns of the “walking stain” with his “blood shot eye on your sister”.

Strident Singing Strings

Possibly the most affecting song on the album is Fable of the Urban Fox, which on the face of it is a sympathetic tale of displaced foxes, trying to find solace in the city. Listen closer. This isn’t a tale of foxes. This is the shameful tale of displaced people and the shocking way they are treated when all they are doing is trying to find safety and somewhere to live without fear. The dramatic beat and strident singing strings adding to the effectiveness of the tragic tale.

On I Was Once a Weak Man, Moffat once again tells a story of imperfection. A lost soul from the seedier underbelly of society. But there is no judgement in his tales. There is a certain empathy for his characters, wondering what it was that led to them to where they are.

I feel an affinity with the penultimate track, Sleeper. Working as I do for the Caledonian Sleeper, I am painting pictures in my head as I listen to Moffat singing his song of a lonely soul on his journey away from one life to another. Middleton manages to capture a flow and tempo that feels like the comforting rolling of a train slipping though the darkness, as the saxophone cries in the night. Epic.

Tear-Jerker

The album closes on Just Enough. A real tear-jerker. Moffat knows how to write lyrics that pull on every last heart string, while Middleton really can write a sympathetic tune to go alongside and really add to the overall emotion of the song. “Falling up into the Sky” sings Moffat as the music starts to thin and the songs reaches its end. Bloody hell guys, what are you doing to me?

In my humble opinion, this is the Strap’s finest body of work. It is warm, and it is funny. Filled with tales of vice and turpitude, but also of the human condition, of our weaknesses, but there is also a celebration of life, there are uplifting soaring melodies aplenty. It is life-affirming. I love this album. All bets are off….

To paraphrase The Turning of Our Bones: “I don’t give a fuck about the past…we can dance again and sing…we are upcycled and saved…lets live now before we’re back below.”

Arab Strap – website