August 7, 1998

What Another Man Spills

Arab Strap's country cousins return. It's Lambchop time again ...

7 / 10 ARAB STRAP'S COUNTRY COUSINS return. It's Lambchop time again and with the unveiling of their fifth album, 'What Another Man Spills' the Nashville cats' tumbleweed-strewn redefinition of listless ennui continues.

Opening track 'Interrupted' is a fulsome summary of what they have achieved thus far with Kurt Wagner's gentle monotone blowing the dust from another lugubriously lovely pedal steel melody line. This, like the equally beautiful 'NO' is Lambchop staking out familiar territory, plunging their hands deep into the filth of existence and plucking out jewels, but it's their aberrations and stylistic deviations that make 'What Another Man Spills' such a rewarding experience.

Having grown accustomed to their familiar 5bpm tortoise dance music, the startlingly competent Replacements rocker 'King Of Nothing Ever', the almost Pulp-like 'It's Not Alright' and the ludicrous bar-room jam on 'The Theme From The Neil Miller Show' are both a welcome surprise and a succinct statement of Lambchop's versatility, their innate self-deprecating humour and the simple spark of humanity which make modest little records like this such a pleasure.

'What Another Man Spills' doesn't demand patience like Arab Strap's slightly overlong 'Philophobia', just attention and a little bit of awe. The bleak have inherited the earth; get used to it.

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