Arab Strap announce details of new album
Arab Strap have announced the follow-up to their 2021 album, As Days Get Dark. Finally returning with the new track ‘Bliss’, the Scottish duo have announced their eighth album, I’m totally fine with it don’t give a fuck anymore.
Pairing Aidan Moffat’s dead-pan and deliciously accented voice over a dancey, beat-heavy instrumental, Arab Strap are wading deeper into electronic waters. With only a hint of guitar, ‘Bliss’ seems to herald in a new era for the band. Signalling a major sonic expansion and a shift towards bigger sounds, the result is something more atmospheric and cinematic than ever.
While the spoken word lyricism and club-ready instrumental might feel at odds, they work together to create a genuine sense of tension. “It’s about women being terrorised online; it’s about cowardice and bigotry; it’s about how we expose ourselves on social platforms while hiding alone at home,” Moffat said of the song’s story.
Building suspense as the lyrics spiral deeper into the tale of keyboard warriors and misogynistic cyber abuse, the instrumentals thumping beat ups the ante. It’s a dark tale, but as the band adds, “But you can dance to it too!”
There is sincere anger in the track, too. Under the danceable beat, the unrelenting build feels like rage building up and up, prepping to blow. ‘Bliss’ feels like it could soundtrack the moments before a big film climax as the band perfectly captures the energy of something being a little off. It sounds like an underlying danger or that indescribable feeling of something bad handing in the air.
It’s a theme set to be explored deeper as Moffat describes the new record as being full of “a quiet anger”. Promising an album packed with “banger after banger”, the band seem to have found a new sense of excitement 28 years after their debut.
I’m totally fine with it don’t give a fuck anymore is set for release on May 10th, 2024, with the band heading out on a UK tour later that same month.
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