Arab Strap are back, and in typically caustic form. The Scottish duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat will return with Half-Told Tales on September 4, via Rock Action. The song that accompanies the news, “You You You,” comes with a fun video directed by Luke Bovill. Watch it below.
Half-Told Tales marks the duo’s return to the discipline of naming albums after perfecting the form with 2024’s I’m Totally Fine With It 👍 Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore 👍. The single, in the age-old Arab Strap tradition, includes a cascade of zesty couplets, from the Rabelaisian (“I’ve got watchlists I’ll never watch/And pruritus scroti in my crotch”) to the self-incriminating (“And if you’re streaming this song on Spotify, then we both fund weapons-grade AI”) and the righteously indignant (“Nobody pays for abhorrent behaviour/Fuck these demagogues cosplaying saviours”).
Moffat describes the track in press materials 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.” He elaborates: “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.”
The duo has also lined up a European tour at the tail end of the year. Find the dates below.
Half-Told Tales:
01 I Get Noise
02 You You You
03 Be a Man
04 Fighting for You
05 Glamour Magick
06 Gape
07 Under Offer
08 Basic Physics
09 Sunsong
10 Dollar Park
11 Mr. Splitfoot
12 Ampersand
13 Fragments
14 Beats per Minute
Arab Strap:
10-12 Dublin, Ireland – Whelan’s
10-13 Manchester, England – Band on the Wall
10-14 London, England – Heaven
10-15 Leeds, England – Howard Assembly Rooms
10-16 Stockton, England – Georgian Theatre
10-17 Glasgow, Scotland – Barrowland
11-22 Prague, Czechia – MeetFactory
11-23 Budapest, Hungary – a38
11-24 Zagreb, Croatia – Vintage Industrial Bar
11-25 Belgrade, Serbia – Zappa Baza
11-26 Bucharest, Romania – Control Club
11-27 Istanbul, Turkey – Zorlu
11-28 Thessaloniki, Greece – Eightball Club
11-29 Athens, Greece – Gazarte
12-13 Parma, Italy – Barezzi Festival
