Arab Strap

Arab Strap built their sound around candid, unsparing accounts of intimacy and substance use, voiced in a pronounced Scottish accent and framed by drum machines, electronic loops, and understated guitar lines. As central figures in the Glasgow scene that also produced Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai, the group ranked among Scotland’s most respected acts throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Formed around vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton, the duo gradually expanded their sonic palette by working with additional musicians on tour and in the studio. Their earliest recordings, including the 1998 breakthrough album Philophobia, remained lean and melancholic, yet later releases such as 2001’s The Red Thread and 2005’s The Last Romance introduced a more refined, marginally brighter tone; the latter was presented at the time as the band’s farewell statement. Both members went on to earn substantial praise for their separate projects, and after occasional reunion performances in the 2010s, Arab Strap returned with their seventh studio album, As Days Get Dark, in 2021. Two years later they followed it with the expansive I’m Totally Fine with It Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore.

The pair first came together in mid-1995 after years of swapping cassette recordings of their earlier bands. Signed to the Chemikal Underground imprint, they debuted with the austere single “The First Big Weekend,” which drew widespread acclaim and was named Britain’s Radio One record of the decade. Their first full-length, The Week Never Starts Round Here, appeared in late 1996, followed in 1997 by the EP The Girls of Summer. After remixing David Holmes’ “Don’t Die Just Yet” into a notable success, Arab Strap delivered their second album, Philophobia, in 1998 and simultaneously secured a U.S. deal with Matador. The record featured contributions from Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian, who later titled his band’s next release The Boy with the Arab Strap as an homage; although the two groups maintained friendly ties, Arab Strap objected to the use of their name, creating a temporary strain.

In 1999 the duo moved to Go! Beat for the limited live set Mad for Sadness and their third studio album, Elephant Shoe. They returned to Chemikal Underground in 2000, issuing The Red Thread the following year. During this period Moffat launched his electronic project Lucky Pierre (subsequently shortened to L. Pierre) with the 2002 album Hypnogogia, while Middleton issued his own debut, 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine. As Arab Strap they released Monday at the Hug and Pint and the limited live album The Cunted Circus in 2003, then unveiled the comparatively upbeat The Last Romance in 2005. By autumn 2006 the members concluded the project had “run its course,” leading to an official disbandment notice. That November they issued the retrospective Ten Years of Tears and completed a final U.K. tour. Both musicians continued solo activity, with Moffat alternating between L. Pierre electronic releases and folk recordings under his own name.

Chemikal Underground assembled the lavish 2010 box set Scenes of a Sexual Nature, comprising five vinyl LPs, three compact discs, a cassette, certificate, and poster. The following year the duo recorded a cover of Slow Club’s “Two Cousins” under the name Two Cousins 1999. Shortly afterward they reunited for a single performance marking the twentieth anniversary of Glasgow venue Nice N Sleazy. In 2016 they launched a new website and announced a series of twentieth-anniversary concerts, also issuing “The First Big Weekend of 2016,” a rework of their debut single produced by Miaoux Miaoux. A self-titled double-CD and LP compilation appeared on Chemikal Underground to coincide with those shows.

Five years after their return, Arab Strap issued As Days Get Dark in 2021, their first studio album since 2005 and one that explored themes of darkness and despair. The record reached number one in Scotland and number 14 in the United Kingdom, their highest-charting effort to date. In 2024 they released their eighth album, I’m Totally Fine with It Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore, its title drawn from a message sent by their live drummer; the songs address conspiracy theories, digital dependency, and feelings of isolation.