Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Rachmaninov: Corelli Variations/Moments Musicaux
Liszt: Sonata for piano in Bm; Transcendental Etude after Paganini in Bm S140/3
Music: Tango Chill Sessions, Vol. 2 [Import]
Om: 10 - A Decade of Future Music
Oz Fritz: All Around the World
Maxximum [Limited Edition] [Import]
Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Clarinet Concerto; Flute Concerto
Polyphonies Vocales des Pygmees Mbenzele: Republique Centrafricaine
Amazon.com
Brooding, depressive, and morose, Arab Strap's music is surprisingly pretty despite itself: a dime-store drum machine thumps along in the most laconic way, a thick Scottish brogue intones drunkenly and lazily above it, and a smattering of keyboard sounds and purposeful guitar chordings fall in atop that. The songs are about all the nasty women who've hurt the two young men's tortured young hearts, and it gets to be a bit much after a full hour. There are glimpses of the reasons why these two Arab Strap boys get into so much trouble, through their plainspoken, mumbled tales of drunkenness and copulation, but too often, Philophobia is the musical equivalent of an unbearable hangover suffered after a lost weekend spent behaving very badly. --Mike McGonigal