Bleep

Is there a certain amount of delight to be taken in hopelessness and darkness? It’s a complicated question Arab Strap seem to ask with As Days Get Dark, a ‘comeback’ record that sounds ironically more upbeat than 2005’s The Last Romance — sonically, at least. There’s an inescapable dancefloor groove to the alternative rock weight of ‘Compersion Pt. 1’, even as vocalist Aidan Moffat delivers a downcast psychosexual tale. The bacchanalian joy of ‘Here Comes Comus!’ — played out over a deliciously 1980s goth disco rhythm — treads the fine line between desire and depravity much in the way of Arab Strap’s greatest work.