Arab Strap announce Half-Told Tales and return with You You You

Arab Strap returned on 20 May with the announcement of Half-Told Tales, their new album due 4 September via Rock Action, and the typically sharp new single You You You. The Scottish duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton have always specialised in making discomfort sound oddly funny, intimate and grimly danceable, and this new track seems to land exactly in that old Arab Strap danger zone.

Moffat described the song as a kind of disco-metal incantation, which is a perfect phrase for a band that has never been afraid to make the body move while the brain is busy panicking. The lyrics take aim at modern exhaustion, algorithmic life, streaming ethics, rising costs, demagogues, mental strain and the general collapse of decency, but the delivery keeps the track from becoming a lecture. Arab Strap are too sardonic for that.

The album title Half-Told Tales also fits them well: their songs often feel like stories overheard too late in the night, where the listener gets the damage but not always the full explanation. The album tracklist includes I Get Noise, You You You, Be a Man, Fighting for You, Glamour Magick, Gape, Under Offer, Basic Physics, Sunsong, Dollar Park, Mr. Splitfoot, Ampersand, Fragments and Beats per Minute.

A European tour is also planned for October, November and December, including dates in Dublin, Manchester, London, Glasgow, Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Athens and Parma.