Arab Strap have announced a new album, Half-Told Tales, which will be out September 4 via Rock Action. The follow-up to 2024’s I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍 is led by the propulsive ‘You You You’, which is accompanied by a video from director Luke Bovill. The Scottish duo’s Aidan Moffat describes it as “a sort of disco-metal incantation. With a message of future felicity and fellowship that – fingers crossed – might make you dance and giggle too.” Check it out below.
“‘You You You’ is an attempt to remind ourselves, and hopefully others, that the world’s not full of awful people,” Moffat continued. “That there are millions of us out there dealing with the same worries every day: from the rising costs of absolutely everything, our mental and physical health, the constant slaughter and tyranny in our newsfeeds, to playing an unwitting part in the military-industrial complex, and the endless warping of reality. It can often feel like a complete absence of human decency – it’s no wonder that despondency can feel like our default disposition.”
Malcolm Middleton added: “The excitement comes because me and Aidan like and hate different things. There are things in the record that individually we might not choose but that’s why I like this album so much, because it’s not the one I wanted to make. I don’t think it’s what Aidan wanted to make either, it’s this bit in the middle. It might not be 100% what we want but it’s good for the band, and it works.”
Half-Told Tales Cover Artwork:
Half-Told Tales Tracklist:
1. I Get Noise
2. You You You
3. Be a Man
4. Fighting For You
5. Glamour Magick
6. Gape
7. Under Offer
8. Basic Physics
9. Sunsong
10. Dollar Park
11. Mr. Splitfoot
12. Ampersand
13. Fragments
14. Beats Per Minute
