Customer Reviews

Week Never Starts Round Here

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One night stands, girls that decieve, ale, clubs, cigarettes and ecstasy; welcome to the world of Arab Strap. A band the tells all(Well mostly the sad parts), not leaving out any little detail. The lead singer mumbles on the mic as if his woken up after a long night before and with a deadly hangover and the band plays on. With lyrics like "I lick her ..., as it tightens its grip." and "Talked with your ex and we agreed,thought of your sister helped us wank. ", it's not hard but to laugh at first but these guys aren't just trying to shock people's parents for a few bucks. Arab Strap live this lifestyle and put it on record, making the music seem more real. All the songs go in a singer-tells-a-story-rather-than-sing formula but the music is differnt. At the core of Arab Strap's music, is modern folk(Belle & Sebastian, etc...) with sprinkles of electronic keyboards, hip hop drums, and industrial thrashes. Arab Strap combine old with new, making a fresh sound. If you don't dig the lyrics, you can atleast just focus on the music. Stand out songs include ; "I Work In A Saloon", "The First Big Weekend"(Possibly the best Arab Strap song), "Blood", and "The Smell Of Outdoor Cooking." "The Week Never Ends Round Here" plays like an Irvine Welsh novel(Arab Strap should've done the whole soundtrack to "The Acid House") talking about youth who waste their days on ale, one night stands, and being lazy all day. If this is what you want, no one does it better than Arab Strap. They've wone me over.

I don't know if this albumn is for everyone, but I loved it. Some of the songs such as Deeper, Phone me tonight, and The First Big Weekend of the Summer, go down in my list of all time favorite tracks.

I would certainly recommend listening to this albumn on a good stereo - a lot of the lyrics sound muffled on bad headphones, making the heavy accents harder to understand. The lyrics are worth it though - Pessemistic, world-weary, but honest and very personal.

This albumn is more varied than some of their later stuff, and one or two tracks are just plain painful to listen to (whistling?) - You certainly can't call this albumn over-produced. This adds to the appeal, though, reflecting the lack of pretention in the music.

In my opinion, this is Arab Strap's best albumn. Buy it, love it, then buy all the ones that follow. You won't regret it.

i bought philophobia first and i think this album, though it's their debut, is not as good. it's too varied, it's not as consistent as philophobia. of course, you might like it that way. i don't, and i wish someone'd told me that this is the case. of course there are gems on this album, and it's worth buying if you like them, but i'd buy it used. philophobia is much more involving, and the music is better. the middle of this album starts getting strange, sounds as if some kids were just messing around with a tape recorder. which is fine, but just not what i was expecting. and i don't think 'the first big weekend' is such a great song - i don't like the techno type stuff very much at all. oh well. this album lacks the depth of philophobia, the honesty and shamelessness that makes that album so great and that makes me love arab strap so much. about half of this album is good in that way. the rest is filler. eh.

if you are the kind of person who will listen to their friend sob in a drunken stupor about how miserable they are, then you will love this album, even though it could drive somebody over the edge from depression into self-destruction (which is usually where the lead singer sounds like he is). the lyrics are amazing and simple; you can actually feel the sadness in his voice as it moves between a moan and a whimper and it is just beautiful, especially when complimented by the quirky instrumental back-up. although i make this sound like the most depressing album you will ever buy, it is a good bit more upbeat than their other albums and is more accesible for the average listener. buy this album first and then check out the others; if you really pay attention to arab strap, you will be amazed every time you hear the album.