Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert – Here Lies The Body – Album Review by Killian Laher

One of the highlights of both Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert’s material in the last six or seven years was their collaboration on Hubbert’s second album; Car Song.  So it makes sense that the brooding Moffat would team up with flamenco guitarist Hubbert and record an album.

Opener Cockcrow is something of a red herring.  A duet between Moffat and fellow Scot Siobhan Wilson, it’s the track here that most bears the imprint of Hubbert’s guitar style, coming off like one of his solo pieces with Moffat and Wilson as hired guests.  The rest of the album deviates from this, Mz. Locum has a classic Moffat delivery and lyrical theme, that of the old chancer getting up close and personal with a medic.  It’s accompanied, like much of the album, by Hubbert’s intricate yet understated guitar work.

For those who enjoyed the aforementioned Car Song, there are a couple of songs here which share its tone.  She Runs has Moffat reminiscing as Hubby’s guitar is joined by pulsing electronics, while later Zoltan Speaks is more yearning and general fairground memories over video game noises!

Blissful guitar introduces Quantum Theory Love Song, another track that features Wilson, along with strings and woodwind, and it’s as good as anything any of them have recorded in the last ten years, as is strange ballad Keening for a Dead Love, which features what might be a throat singer in the background and a sort of Spanish jazz feel.  These seemingly disparate elements unfathomably combine together really well.

Party On, though far away from The First Big Weekend of the Summer, takes the spirit of Arab Strap and channels it into a more gentle anthem.  After the mellow drawl of Everything Goes, on final track Fringe, Moffat’s tale is accompanied by Hubbert’s brooding, widescreen guitar.

On first listening, not so much stands out but these are songs which continue to reveal themselves after many listens.  A highpoint for both RM Hubbert and Aidan Moffat.

Track List –

1. Cockcrow
2. Mz. Locum
3. She Runs
4. Quantum Theory Love Song
5. Wolves of the Wood
6. Keening for a Dead Love
7. Zoltar Speaks
8. Party On
9. Everything Goes
10. Fringe

Party On