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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Elephant Shoe
by Arab Strap


9.0

based on 13 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 1 vote
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Rate this album

MUSIC:

The third full-length from the Scottish outfit.

LABEL:	Jetset
RELEASE DATE:	06 June 2000
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock, Alternative

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Nude As The News

The true strength of Elephant Shoe lies in its transcendent quality, in its ability to sweep you away with its hypnotic beauty and transport you to the heights of your own imagination.

Pitchfork

Arab Strap's music is still fractured, Smog-like, and woefully beautiful. The group's pitted, narky ambience fuses Irvine Welsh with Brian Eno's Another Green World-- Elephant Shoe is ambient for the Tamazipan massive.... Arab Strap's depression is as addictive as their expression of it is alluring.

Magnet

Somber early works by the Cure and Joy Division read like knock-knock jokes by comparison. [#46, p.66]

Alternative Press

The tunes are as melancholy rosey as ever, the confessional as soul-stirringly honest and open. [#147, p.83]

Almost Cool

However slight it is, there's a measured optimism in some of the lyrics on the release that make the weight of things just a little easier to bear.

Spin

Continues their quest for idyllic listlessness, setting claustrophobic love-sucks songs to shy bedroom beats that are always passing (out) into ambient ether. [Sep 2000, p.189]

All Music Guide

There is undeniably something almost romantic about the duo's newfound acceptance of relationships, even if the main evolution is that they now view them as a necessary evil, rather than simply evil.

Spin Cycle

The trademark woeful brood is firmly intact. This time around, however, the Scottish duo has taken a slightly more playful approach to its music.

L.A. Weekly

The recipe has changed little; if anything, it?s only become more articulate. Hauntingly beautiful backing tracks that could easily stand on their own float along, barely moving.

New Musical Express

It'll sit nicely at the ultra-sad end of the CD rack, but if you have to listen to it more than twice a year, you should definitely drink less, get out more and consider relationship counselling.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

It's some of the most depressing music ever made, and unlike The Cure you can't even dance to it, but that appears to be the point.

CDNow

Elephant Shoe recalls the somber tranquility of Velvet Underground at its most remote.

Q Magazine

Moffat's half-sung, half-muttered confessionals still lurch between the pulsing beats and pensive instrumentation but the tone is now more funereal than carnal.

The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Benjamin Bunny gave it a 9:
Spare, spare, spare. Aidan Moffatt's rants are noticeably downsized from other albums, the beats are uncomplicated and fairly repititious, and the musical accompaniment is barely there--heard through an open window from the funeral service next door. What you're left with is Arab Strap bereft of any of their many pretensions, whittling down their art to the small pearls of truth that have underlined their whole career--love, hate, the blurred line between the two. A deeply felt, touching, meditative work. Also their best album.

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Elephant Shoe by Arab Strap

Elephant Shoe
by Arab Strap