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As Days Get Dark Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 23 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the first new full-length release in over 15 years from the Scottish indie rock duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Mar 4, 2021
    90
    Arab Strap are back with a vengeance. And it’s fucking glorious.
  2. Mar 2, 2021
    90
    A comeback that not only beats expectations but has an excellent claim to be the band's crowning achievement (so far).
  3. With lyrics that encompass the reality of ageing with all its wisdom and regrets, and with music that employs the deftness of touch that can only come with long-term honing, Arab Strap have delivered their defining record.
  4. Uncut
    Mar 2, 2021
    80
    A comeback album that feels vital rather than forced. [Apr 2021, p.25]
  5. Mar 4, 2021
    80
    As Days Get Dark carries on their traditions of intimate ambience and tug-of-war technique, but commendably, it doesn’t seek to summarize so much as add to their inimitable story.
  6. Apr 6, 2021
    80
    Despite the lengthy dormant period that preceded it, As Days Get Dark is a perfect document of that beauty, offering a listening experience as chilling, nihilistically funny, and emotionally overpowering as anything the band produced before it.
  7. Mar 2, 2021
    60
    Arab Strap’s first studio album together since 2005’s The Last Romance is marked by a feeling of not quite-ness; everything’s there but it just doesn’t quite click into its potential at many points. A good half of the record treads in similar ground to opener and comeback single The Turning of Our Bones; drum machines, faintly angular guitar arpeggios and Moffat’s largely spoken dissection of middle age.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Mar 8, 2021
    10
    Arab Strap return with their best work yet. A dark and thrilling record filled with sly humour, tangible regret and punishing emotional honesty.
  2. Mar 7, 2021
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dark, broody, brilliant it may have been a long time in the making but worth the wait Expand
  3. Apr 6, 2021
    9
    it was my first experience with Arab Strap and it was amazing, i can describe this album as a modern look to an old fashion way of makingit was my first experience with Arab Strap and it was amazing, i can describe this album as a modern look to an old fashion way of making music. i hope we can listen more and more works like this and also i guess we'll find more great alternative/indie albums during 2021 Expand
  4. May 13, 2021
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. What a nice surprise It s like summer of freedom as the dance rhythms mix with iconic lyrics like “my Polyanna loves poetry / she thinks my heaven is hell” etc etc etc etc etc etc etc Expand
  5. Sep 12, 2021
    8
    As the minutes go by, that difficult-to-interpret sound takes shape and enters you as something already known and recognized. I am pleased toAs the minutes go by, that difficult-to-interpret sound takes shape and enters you as something already known and recognized. I am pleased to have a first listen to the band with this album. It is absorbing the presentation of the creativity from Arab Strap after a decade that they don't get together. It may take time to understand what they say, but the atmospheric sensation is merely familiar.

    fav tracks: "Compersion, Pt. 1", "Bluebird", "Kebabylon", "Tears On Tour" & "I Was Once a Weak Man"
    KEY-TRACK: "Fable of the Urban Fox"
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  6. Feb 23, 2022
    8
    Simple but so effective, Arab Strap's formula hits all the right spots here and is the ideal soundtrack to life in the Western World in theSimple but so effective, Arab Strap's formula hits all the right spots here and is the ideal soundtrack to life in the Western World in the early 2020's. There are half a dozen individual highlights but all the tracks work together to make what is arguably the outfits finest record. Expand