Darker With The Day

This morning's episode features an interview with Jim White who recently released his first solo album, All Hits: Memories on March 29th and Swallowtail, his second collaboration with Marisa Anderson on May 10th. Jim also has upcoming releases with the recently formed supergroup (with Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn and Shahzad Izmaily) Beings (There Is A Garden - June 7th) and, perhaps his most well-known group, Dirty Three, who are touring Australia in June and releasing their new album, Love Changes Everything, on June 14th.

Plus the following review, featured just before the Arab Strap song, Safe & Well.

Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it don't give a fuck anymore (Rock Action)

Released May 10th, 2024

Arab Strap return with their second post-reunion release and their eighth album overall, the sardonically titled, I'm totally fine with it  don't give a fuck anymore. Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffatt have spent their career plumbing the depths of depravity, desperation and despair and their latest release only further illuminates the darker aspects of the human condition.

Arab Strap’s music becomes increasingly relatable as you age and acquire the various baggages of human existence: Failed relationships, broken friendships and the consequences of weekends -or entire weeks- lost to alcohol and drug abuse. Most poignantly, they provide a soundtrack to the sense of hopelessness one feels when you are old enough to regret your actions but are powerless to change them. 

Allatonceness kicks off the proceedings, over a distorted, driving bass line, Moffatt intones about the battle between being addicted to online clickbait conspiracies and a yearning for simpler times and pleasures. In the past Arab Strap have been mostly self-loathing, but on I'm totally fine with it don't give a fuck anymore they direct some of this vitriol outwards,  not just at the internet but also at more tangible targets such as nazis, rapists and apathetic neighbours.

Late-album highlight Safe & Well is particularly heartbreaking and the start of a three-song, downward slide that brings the album to its close. Written in the first-person, from the perspective of a deceased individual, it recounts -in great detail- all the things they are missing as they rot inside their apartment. Dreg Queen is a depressing ode to a friend who refuses to abandon their hard-living ways, whilst album closer, Turn Off The Light, speaks to the impact of isolation and the often harmful effects of finding solace in fringe-dwelling, online communities.

Even with its scattered attempts at gallows humour, I'm totally fine with it don't give a fuck anymore may be Arab Strap’s bleakest effort yet and, almost certainly, their noisiest. Arab Strap have, intentionally or not, released an album that is a worthy metaphor for the horrors of our current existence. Moments of danceability and dark satire provide a welcome distraction from the crackling static and explosions of noise that symbolise the dark clouds brewing on the horizon; Armageddon has never sounded so good.

Nick Stephan