Mad for Sadness [LIVE]

Arab Strap

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: July 4, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Jet Set Records
• ASIN: B00004TXXC
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #258,764 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro/My Favourite Muse

2. Packs of Three

3. New Birds

4. Toy Fights

5. Here We Go

6. Phone Me Tomorrow

7. Girls of Summer

8. Piglet

9. Blood

10. Afterwards

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant post coital misery, September 10, 2001

By	el dangeroso (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

Arab Strap have for years now been purveyors of a moping, desolate rock that differentiates itself from similar bands like Snow Patrol or Belle and Sebastian through it's pure authenticity and blackened heart. While Belle often sound like they spent most of their afternoons in the local library exchanging witty barbs with the chess club and filling in literary ad-libs, Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat sounds like he's misspent his young adulthood in the wrong pubs, bringing home the wrong girls, and often regretting it...before doing it again the next night. He's a character actor, a drunken Scottish chain smoker with an amnesiac conscience portraying the anti-romantic balladeer. They are certainly given to exploring consequences, giving them drama and weight and a noisy backbeat. Mad For Sadness is a brilliant exploration of this world of darkened corners,and along with Philophobia is the best place for a novice Strap fan to start. They strum and pound and moan and whisper and rock through ten perfect tracks, creating a satisfying soundtrack for rainy days and snowy nights. Check out the gorgeously volatile "New Birds," Girls Of Summer," and "Afterwards." You won't regret it, although you may start regretting everything else in your life.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Live Arab Strap Album, July 31, 2000

By	RadioNDN "RadioNDN" (Midwestern USA) - See all my reviews

Essential live recording of this band, recorded in London in 1998. Features amazing versions of "New Birds" and "Girls of Summer," which alone are worth the price of the CD. If you are an Arab Strap fan, you must own this. If you are new to this Scottish band, this is a brilliant introduction to their stark, introspective, and often acid mixture of folk and rock music. Fabulously good.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arab Strap at its most intense, July 30, 2001

By	"mattbot_5000" (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews

This is, quite simply, the best live album I own or have ever heard. Arab Strap create a uniquely claustrophobic and intensely alive atmosphere with their sparse arrangments that oftentimes culminate in an orgasm of sound and fury. "Girls of Summer" positively explodes at the 5 minute mark, its dancefloor beat creating an overwhelming wall of sound (sorry about the cliche, but it's fitting in this case). "New Birds" is another highlight, the dark, mumbled, drunken story accompanied to perfection by the crashing cymbals and foreboding bass that builds throughout.

Play this record as loud as possible, drink a few beers, and listen to a live show as it was meant to be recorded and experienced.