Arab Strap are one of those bands where once you get hooked, you'll want to hear everything that they release. Their twisted take on love, sex, relationships and life in general aren't the cheeriest of affairs, but they are wholly absorbing. Their full-length release from earlier in 2003, Monday At the Hug and Pint, witnessed the band moving increasingly towards writing these same types of songs that they have perfected over the course of their career, but with a mellower and less electric sound. The results were overwhelmingly positive and this EP, focused on the band's first single released from that album, is a continuation on the same musical theme.
This EP's centerpiece track is "The Shy Retirer," one of the standout tracks from Monday At the Hug and Pint. The songs driving drum machine beats and layered strings move the narrative about clubbing, drinking and self-loathing forward at a breakneck speed. The radio-friendly edit of creating a "midnight circus" takes away a hair of the song's immediacy, but if you're a true Arab Strap fan you're not buying this EP for this album track anyway. You're here for the other goodies. "The Good Part" and "The New Saturday" are outtakes from their Monday... sessions and both tracks are worthy entries into the Arab Strap canon. "The Good Part" starts off with an atmospheric electric guitar sweep that leaves plenty of room for a layered acoustic guitar track to explore. Moffat joins in and tells a short but effective story about a delusional lover who wants his partner to ignore their fighting and squabbling for another good roll in the bed which will allow them to both forget the troubles with the relationship. "The New Saturday" is a bit more upbeat in the way it describes the narrator's angst. The EP is closed out with a less pounding and more danceable remix of "The Shy Retirer" by Dirty Hospital.
Over the course of the last year, Arab Strap has developed a wonderful new quirk. They've taken to finding some of the cheesiest and stinkiest cock-rock songs, running them through the band's musical and vocal delivery formula, and turned them into wonderfully "new" songs. Moffat and Middleton have a very keen eye—the songs that they've carefully chosen are those that really are Arab Strap songs underneath all of the bombast and overproduction that they are originally so well-known for. Songs that focus on problematic relationships, affairs of convenience that are later filled with regret, longing and yearnings for lovers who will never materialize. Who would have guessed that Van Halen and AC/DC would have been the origins of such ripe source material. If you think back to the time when you first heard Sammy Hagar belt out "Why Can't This Be Love," did you think there would ever be a time when the song could seem intimate and heart felt? I certainly know that that thought never entered my mind. With the Van Halen sound taken away and replaced with a steady drum machine beat, acoustic guitars and a string section, the song comes across much differently. The music aside, Moffat's vocals are what really transform the song into something extraordinary. His wry and plaintively speaking style and thick brogue make every line seem achingly true. Lines like "it's got what it takes / tell me can't this be love" become moving. That alone, being able to turn Hager-era Van Halen into something serious and true, is a demonstration of true artistry. Next the band tackles the ever-popular AC/DC scream-fest "You Shook Me All Night Long". While we all know every guitar lick and lyric to this old chestnut, Moffat's delivery once again kicks the song into another dimension. Those American thighs that knock the narrator out? Well, they make a whole hell of a lot more sense when they come from a man used to singing about sexual torment and doomed relationships. I will never be able to hear the line "she told me to come but I was already there" in the same context ever again. "You Shook Me All Night Long" is a song that Arab Strap originally wrote in some alternate universe. The band made this a staple of their live set during their swing through the States back in the spring. The clarity and directness that they impart in both this studio version as well as "Why Can't This Be Love" alone make this EP a worthy purchase.
The Shy Retirer EP is a solid collection of Arab Strap tracks that are sure to please those devoted die-hard fans out there. The casual listener might find their covers of some old hard-rockin' classics curiously amusing, they might miss out on the genuine amusement and sincerity that these songs are delivered with without having a more extensive background with the band's catalog. The extra tracks from the album session are nice and would have been great on their own. Throw in the Van Halen and AC/DC covers and you've got something special.
CORY RAYBORN