Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older

Considering the frequency that ageing pops up as a lyrical theme on Everything’s Getting Older, it’s appropriate that it took former Arab Strap man Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells eight years to finish it – the two having first got together when Wells tinkled the ivories for the Falkirk duo in 2003. Happily, it’s a record that's well worth the wait. Wells’ sometimes sad, sometimes joyous piano the perfect foil to Moffat’s poised, memorable musings.

At times, Moffat is the filthy raconteur of old, only even more battle-weary, worn-hearted – maybe even wiser. Just as you fear fatherhood has made the once kiss-and-tell swordsman soft, he hits you with Glasgow Jubilee, as nasty (and addictive) as anything penned in the Strap days. Wells’ music moves from minimalistic lullaby to dark, jazzy abandon, detouring through what very may well be a tongue-in-cheek nod to Elton John.

But it works – oh, does it work – with only the love-will-conquer-all schmaltz of the Greatest Story Ever Told letting the side down ever so slightly. A great record for anyone, especially those – as Moffat sings – “still clinging onto youth.” [PJ Meiklem]