Albums by this artist

Elephant Shoe (2000)

Arab Strap

Elephant Shoe

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» SHANE STRAIGHT | STAFF WRITER

Arab Strap Elephant Shoe Jetset, 2000 RiYL: Tindersticks, Dirty Three, Smog, Mogwai

Although I must admit that Elephant Shoe is slightly less bleak than its predecessors, I still think it was recorded as the soundtrack of an imaginary film called "A Glimpse Into the Last Five Minutes of My Life Before I Shot Up Heroin and Slit My Wrists in a Bathtub Filled With Warm Water and Watched My Precious Blood Trickle Down My Naked Body." It's one of those avant-garde movies filled with black and white artsy montages of blood, flies, softly muttered words, torn black skies, and close ups of gaunt faces pocked with bruises.

OK, so perhaps I'm being rather melodramatic, but these are the sorts of things that flash through my mind as I lay on my bed listening to Arab Strap. I can also see Arab Strap evoking images of rooms dimly lit by candles framing beds of satin sheets... The lingering smells of lust, sweat, cheap perfume and lies heavy in the air... The sounds of ecstasy echoing off the walls... It's all a matter of perception...

Either way, Scotland's Arab Strap oozes something. Whether it is sex or death or love or god is up to the listener. The music itself is dark and slow, filled with violins, cellos, delicate drum machines, careful, melodic guitar work and barely muttered tales of insecurity and broken relationships. It is at once beautiful and dark, a sweeping cloud of sinister atmosphere.

Musically and lyrically the songs on Elephant Shoe are very similar. One song seems to flow naturally into the next, often without the listener noticing. Perhaps it is just me, but I don't find myself being preoccupied by singer Aiden Moffet's seemingly narrow range of topics (wine and cheating girlfriends, and the futility of being at the ass end of an indifferent world). In fact, I barely listen to what he's saying. The true strength of Elephant Shoe lies in its transcendent quality, in its ability to sweep you away with its hypnotic beauty and transport you to the heights of your own imagination.

Arab Strap is the Anti-Moby. Listening to Elephant Shoe you will find your shoes a little too heavy, your muscles a little too weary, and your skin a little too burdensome. You will sit down. You will lean your head back and close your eyes. You will see images of long-forgotten relics stashed in the deep recesses of your mind. You may see torn pictures of old girlfriends, awe-inspiring mountains of Katmandu, or grisly murder scenes filled with bits of bone and brain. Hell, I don't know what you'll see, but you will see something. And you will be entranced by its intensity and its vividness.

Let me be frank, this is dark, brooding music. Today you will not pet your puppy dog or eat chocolate ice cream. Your dog will overdose on Prozac and you'll eat stale crackers in an empty house, stare at your feet and wonder why everything beautiful is so far away. No, you may not like all the places Elephant Shoe sends you, but it is always compelling and always passionate. Not only is Elephant Shoe one of the year's finest releases, it stands as a masterpiece of mood and atmosphere.

SHANE STRAIGHT |