MAD FOR SADNESS
Arab Strap
(Jetset)
These Scottish mope-rockers' sordid, seductively bleak studio albums
make Morrissey seem as giddy as The Monkees. So when it comes to a live
album, well, let's put it this way, Mad for Sadness isn't exactly KISS
Alive. But the lack of drum solos, explosions and banal between-song
patter doesn't make this 1998 performance from singer Aidan Moffat,
guitarist Malcolm Middleton and a backing trio any less transfixing than
the biggest rock spectacle. If anything, quite the opposite. Moffat's
embarrassingly frank tales of drunken longing, unsatisfying sex and
romantic dysfunction -- delivered in a heavily accented deadpan somewhere
between a hungover confession and a depressed monologue -- are as
captivating as a car wreck, especially when set against the rippling
waves of sparsely beautiful melody woven by the band. Unlike most live
discs, where you can hear the punters yakking and hooting below the
music, this London crowd sounds as cowed as if Moffat had a gun on them.
Come to think, that might be less intimidating.
Track Listing
1.Intro/My Favourite Muse
02.Packs Of Three
03.New Birds
04.Toy Fights
05.Here We Go
06.Phone Me Tomorrow
07.Girls Of Summer
08.Piglet
09.Blood
10.Afterwards