Aidan Moffat and the Best-Ofs - How To Get To Heaven From Scotland

Anyone vaguely aware of Aidan Moffat will clock this Valentine’s Day release as the sardonic, tongue-in-cheek Hallmark moment it is. “Lift up your skirt and I’ll fill you with babies", slurs the former Arab Strap frontman on The Isle Of Ewe, making it clear that, despite the deluxe box-set with a personally signed Valentine’s card, How To Get To Heaven should not be intended as a gift to your loved one. Oh Men! begins as a jovial paean to men’s indiscriminate ogling of women; - “we’re all slaves to our erections”, apparently - but ends as an unlikely championing of feminism, albeit with a wry footnote: “Give the ladies some respect, but there’s still no harm in looking”. Moffat is certainly the star here, but The Best-Ofs provide inventive backing, including human beat-boxing, a skiffle knees-up and a bar-room singalong saluting the bittersweet end of a relationship. Yes, we are growing up with the bearded bard, but some things never change. [Darren Carle]