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9.0
137530
9.0 |
Under The Radar
With Malcolm Middleton’s melancholic guitar at their heart, and the expected self-awareness that typifies their best work, this is a set of songs that offers no answers, but observes conditions and behavior plainly and poetically in turn
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9.0
137571
9.0 |
PopMatters
Once again, Arab Strap have done a grand job worthy of broad smiles, screens off, and the stereo turned all the way up. Get outside and hear the birds sing
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8.5
137573
8.5 |
The Quietus
Two releases into their post-retirement phase, this isn’t necessarily unexpected, but damn, in the wrong headspace? (Or at the wrong age?) It will 100% mess you up, leave you blubbering on the floor
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8.0
137584
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Aidan Moffat ramps up his campaign for the best-songwriter-of-his-generation award
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8.0
137645
8.0 |
No Ripcord
NEW
There's a playfulness to their genre-hopping tact, with Moffat fitting his often-loose prose to warped club beats (Bliss), folk twang (Molehills), and 80s-inspired soft-rock (You're Not There)
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8.0
137532
8.0 |
Mojo
Thrillingly raw, it captures the pair at their most streamlined, visceral and direct, disproving F Scott Fitzgerald's theory about second acts. Print edition only
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8.0
137533
8.0 |
Uncut
Arab Strap songs mostly have a strong, vinegary flavour, and this is abracingly sour album over the long haul. The relentless misanthropic grind can drag in places. But as ever, Moffat’s withering scorn is sweetened by beautiful poetry, tender emotion and self-aware, bruise-black humour. Print edition only
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8.0
137561
8.0 |
musicOMH
Morosely funny lyrics, and a pitch-perfect retro sound design that alternates between deadly serious and utterly comical. They’re stronger than ever
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7.9
137525
7.9 |
Spectrum Culture
Here on their new album, nothing is concealed—that feeling of bitter acceptance isn’t just part of I’m totally fine with it; it’s the beating heart of what makes the album so compelling
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7.8
137568
7.8 |
Pitchfork
On its second post-comeback album, the Scottish duo turns its narrative attention to human behavior in the digital age, to incisive and occasionally nihilistic ends
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6.1
137520
6.1 |
Northern Transmissions
The songwriting is unique but lacks anything of note, and the production, as usual, does not keep up well with all of this
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