Summertime Records: The Boy With The Arab Strap

When it comes to late night summer records, The Boy With The Arab Strap fits the bill surprisingly well. While both Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister seem to revel in the indoor comfort of Winter, with its soft textures and warm introverted sound, Arab Strap extends outward into the night sky. The orchestrations on "Dirty Dream Number Two" give off the excitement and energy of a fireworks show, while the title track has the fun and loose nature of a picnic with it's shuffled beat and handclaps. What really evokes the nightime nature of the songs though is in its serenity like on the Isobel Campbell sung "Is It Wicked Not To Care", a song that's tremolo guitar picking captures the twinkle of starlight reflecting on rippling water. Both songs sung by Stevie Jackson ("Chickfactor", "Seymour Stein") have a slow, drifting quality to them, while "A Summer Wasting" and "The Roller Coaster" gently review some of the guilty pleasures of the lazy, directionless, summetime lovers. While future releases would progressively drop the fokier influences of their first two albums, Arab Strap still maintains them while expanding into more electric territories and some experimentalism. If You're Feeling Sinister remains their finest work, but The Boy With The Arab Strap is the best record for sitting on the dunes at night with a bottle of wine.