Retirement is a nasty bit of business and for Arab Strap it has seemingly not taken. Sitting around all day, chewing on Werther’s Originals and thinking about what to do with the day, once filled up with work and experience, is a tricky time. Some will recede into watching Homes Under the Hammer and chain-drinking cups of tea while others, like Arab Strap, find themselves scratching the creative itch again and again. Their second post-retirement album hears I’m Totally Fine With It, Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore tackles the haunting reality of technology. This is not a technophobe at play but a tech-warning blast of emotionless back-and-forth. Healthy scepticism of a tool frequently used in our day-to-day lives. Why stop yourself when you still have much to give? Those modem tones and endless ringing on opener Allatonceness still linger as rage-bait wonders, paired with a thick guitar riff.
They have got your attention. That they have. Arab Strap works wonders with their dark and frank tones, stripping the real world of its loose parts. Capturing where the disconnect with the real world comes from is tricky yet Arab Strap makes easy work of it. Wants and desires flow through their album opener and try, desperately, furiously, to connect with the real world. Shed your thick, techno-reliant skin and suck rocks, feel trees and burn your retinas in the great outdoors. Tones like this may worry some as being left in the past but there is an earnestness to Arab Strap here which is valuable and keeps consistent over the whole of I’m Totally Fine With It, Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore. Information may be readily accessible in the palm of our hands but so too are the horrors of the world beyond our street.
Pub chatter has died and the pocketed fury of being online is responsible. Your free time, and the strength held in the desire to resolve the troubles are now faster approached, poorly reflected on and prescribed opinions as mandatory. These horrors and the blind leading the blind approach of Sociometer Blues reflect this fear. We revert into ourselves, as Summer Season predicts, because our phones are a tool to avoid the real world yet connect with it further, harsher and without emotional processes. I’m Totally Fine With It, Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore has a clear and continuous narrative to it. More power to it. Arab Strap is enraged. A lucid tone soon follows, paired with electronic fury which may remind of the great, narrative-driven pushes of Acid Klaus. There is a defeat lingering in You’re Not There, as though the romance of the real world is locked away behind whirring screens and this need to have a presence online over in person.
Yes, it may be the scribbles of men who wish to be left alone and away from the internet but more power to them. They have brought on an ultimate and unifying clang of terror, looking for a cure to the fear of missing out brought on by social media. Beyond their thematic joy comes confidence and considered effectiveness. Arab Strap remains a force to be reckoned with and this is the best part of their post-reunion work. They have refuelled and re-energised themselves, hauling a cold and grounded response to the desire to be protected in an echo chamber or bubble. We attract like-minded people but the peace is breached by the cold, uncaring reality described on Haven’t You Heard. Piece together what joy you can and hold tight is the warning Arab Strap gives their listeners. Dreg Queen is not just about those tech fears but the failed attempts at connection in a reliant modern culture. Sharp, spoken-word charms flood through a disorienting yet warm experience.
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