*** Arab Strap ELEPHANT SHOE (Jetset)

**1/2 Arab Strap MAD FOR SADNESS (Jetset)

That shimmer on Elephant Shoe is the sound of singer Aidan Moffatt finding love. The good news is, he doesn't know what to do with it, so confusion and ambiguity continue to reign in his heart, providing ample inspiration for his melancholy muse. With help from fellow troubadour and guitarist Malcolm Middleton, members of Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian, and a drum machine, Moffatt celebrates romantic sulking -- beautifully so on "Hello Daylight." Although the CD is more solidly textured and less bleak than previous Arab Strap albums, it's still a collection of dirges for love hangovers, commanding all the despondency of, say, the most melancholic Dirty Three or Tindersticks tracks, with Moffatt's labored mumble adding to the resignation.

The aptly titled Mad for Sadness is another field trip to the Scottish group's cemetery of botched opportunities and broken dreams. Recorded in London in 1998 as a limited-edition disc and considered a "classic" live set by Strap fans, it's finally available in the US. Despite the distraction of an out-of-tune guitar, the album's echoing melodies air out some of the DIY claustrophobia that choked these tracks on the band's first two albums. And Moffatt, executing elegant exercises in self-pity, proves he can find misery in just about any situation.

-- Tristram Lozaw