Philophobia Undressed

by Arab Strap

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Double LP on sexy, classic, durable black carbon vinyl, the way the Rock Gods intended. Double-printed UV gloss sleeve with black reverse print, black poly-lined inners, and channel list and stage plot insert. Also comes with a signed postcard.

**PLEASE NOTE** – The signed postcard will be included in the package rather than the LP sleeve, so please check inside the mailer upon receipt.

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Includes unlimited streaming of Philophobia Undressed via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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	1.	Packs of Three 03:27
	2.	Soaps 03:53
	3.	Here We Go 05:01
	4.	New Birds 04:30
	5.	One Day, After School 05:07
	6.	Islands 04:30
	7.	The Night Before the Funeral 04:48
	8.	Not Quite a Yes 03:28
	9.	Piglet 05:35
	10.	Afterwards 03:53
	11.	My Favourite Muse 05:39
	12.	I Would've Liked Me a Lot Last Night 04:14
	13.	The First Time You're Unfaithful 04:25

about

Recorded live in Glasgow in December 2023, this show was part of a celebratory tour in honour of our second album, Philophobia, in the year of its 25th birthday. We were pretty focused on new material at the time – and we’d recently released an album that began with the line “I don’t give a fuck about the past” – so plans for a big, full-band production were soon abandoned in favour of a more intimate show. The Philophobia Undressed tour would feature the album in full, but performed by just the two of us, in mostly cosier venues. Not so much a big birthday bash, then, but rather a quiet wee toast in good company.

It turned out to be one of our favourite tours ever, and while the line-up was stripped back, it certainly wasn’t an acoustic show. The set began with very gentle versions of Packs of Three and Soaps, but soon gave way to heavy drum machines and bit-crushed synths, ambient loops and field recordings, a touch of melodica and harmonica, and some live drums. We also found ourselves reworking some arrangements and structures – My Favourite Muse was particularly fun to play – fixing out-of-tune keyboard parts (One Day, After School), and Aidan was actually singing the songs now, in ways he couldn’t manage in 1998. He even updated some of the lyrics, sharpening their focus and softening some edges here and there, and sometimes just for the fun of it. The final result was – hopefully – exactly what we wanted: a reflective, remixed rendition of an old album we’re very fond of, played and sung with another 25 years of life baked in.

The album was recorded by our longtime live engineer, Richie Dempsey, then mixed and mastered by our evenlongertime recording engineer, Paul Savage, at our regular studio, Chem19. Like the original Philophobia LP, it’s a double vinyl set (following the original’s side split running order exactly), while the sleeve and labels include photos of the show by Elliot Hetherton; it also includes a copy of the actual channel list and stage plot we used for the tour. On top of that, all orders will include an accompanying double-sided signed postcard.

Thanks to all who've been supporting these vinyl releases, they're a bit of a labour of love for us. Philophobia Undressed will be the last one for awhile, as we focus on new songs and plans for our birthday next year. The next Archive LP is planned for sometime in 2027. Cheers!

credits

released September 5, 2025

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Arab Strap Scotland, UK

"The Proclaimers from Hell" – some newspaper in the '90s

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