So Aidan Moffat makes Tindersticks' Stuart Staples sound like Sinatra. So this is pretty much 'The First Big Weekend' Part Two. So this record lives beyond the valley of the superlatives. [5/5]
TIMEOUT Single Of The Week - 1st - 8th April, 1998
NME - 21st March, 1998
The Strap bring us a maudlin twosome in the name of capitalising not one iota on their chart-dentin' 'breakthrough' with 'The Girls Of Summer' EP. "How am I supposed to walk you home when you're at least 50ft ahead", weeps the 'Bontempi Lou Reed' on 'Here We Go', "'cos you walked off in a huff and I can't remember what I said". A nation sobs quietly into its tartan flask full of gin in dolorous recognition.
'Trippy' is just that, a cautionary tale concerning going round the mates' house to do loads of hallucinogenic drugs and then one of them goes mad. It is compelling and bleak and like some leftover scenes from Trainspotting when things were not so funny any more. Then it careers off down the hard man's rave-up where young men in no shirts and Mani hats try to blow themselves up via a self-induced bloof pressure incident. Lovely.