Artist: Arab Strap
Title: fukd i.d.#2
Format: 12" single
Label: Chemikal Underground
Catalogue Number: Chem048
Year of Release: 2000
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Tracklisting:
1. Rocket, Take Your Turn
2. Blackness
Lyrics available at the Chemical Underground site, click here.
Here's an excerpt from their official biog:
"[leaving Go! Beat] was certainly not the end for Arab Strap, and a welcome return to Chemikal Underground was undertaken - being that the label understood the band's wanton ways - and the band's next output was via the release of a single on the recently formed FUKD I.D. imprint - a set-up created "to enable the label to work with a broader selection of innovative and subversive musicians, to explore new creative territories whilst making the music as accessible as possible." 'FUKD I.D.#2' was a departure from the typical Arab Strap sound to a more electronic and upbeat one that they had always threatened, but this new sound wasn't to last and a return to the melancholically honest storytelling was inevitable... "
It's slightly paradoxical that being more upbeat makes Arab Strap less engaging and more depressing. I just couldn't get into this single at all, and I tried. I think maybe the lyrics, being more abstract and less story-based, are part of the problem. The four-to-the-floor beats on the A-side are pretty poor too, but they've never been a band you'd seek out for quality musicianship. I don't know what else to say. Disappointing.
