Arab Strap have announced that they will be releasing their first album in 16 years on March 5, 2021. The announcement of As Days Get Dark was accompanied by Arab Strap’s latest single and the third track on the upcoming album, “Compersion Pt. 1”

“This album feels like its own new thing to me,” Aidan Moffat said in a press release. “It’s definitely Arab Strap, but an older and wiser one, and quite probably a better one.”

“Compersion Pt. 1” utilizes deep bass movements and strumming guitars, Moffat’s deep vocals creating a deep and soothing tone, each word flowing into one another. The synths build up to create an anticipating tone, Moffat’s Scottish accent adding a depth to the track while the synths pop over the guitar. The song’s release coincided with a lyric video for the single, the images featuring a couple being intimate with one another.

Moffat described the track as “[depicting] a quest to find the ever-elusive unicorn; to bond fluidly – and safely! – with the link-minded and adventurous, in the comforting arms of an anonymous hotel … and the stark realization that you never really wanted it.”

“We’ve had enough distance from our earlier work to reappraise and dissect the good and bad elements of what we did,” Malcolm Middleton said in a press statement. “Not many bands get to do this, so it’s great to split up.”

The band worked with producer Paul Savage for the album, with recording sessions involving only Savage, Middleton and Moffat. Arab Strap had worked with Savage on past albums, including The Week Never Starts Round Here, Philophobia and The Last Romance.

“Paul brings comfort and trust,” Middleton said in a press statement. “And a sense of continuity.”

Arab Strap released their last album, The Last Romance, back in 2005, going on hiatus in 2006 then returning in 2016. Moffat has also released several works as a solo artist, both under his own name and under the moniker L Pierre. Moffat has also released two albums with Chemikal Underground.

“I’ve never been interested in making slick records,” Moffat said in a press statement. “But the new stuff sounds much fuller, brighter and better because we actually know what we’re doing. I think for a long time we didn’t know how to express what we wanted in a studio.”

As Days Get Dark will arrive as Arab Strap’s seventh studio album, with the band’s first release having been 1996’s The Week Never Starts Round Here. The band has released three live albums as well as four compilation albums, with the most recent being 2016’s Arab Strap.

As Days Get Dark track list:

1. The Turning of Our Bones
2. Another Clockwork Day
3. Compersion Pt. 1
4. Bluebird
5. Kebabylon
6. Tears on Tour
7. Here Comes Comus!
8. Fable of the Urban Fox
9. I Was Once a Weak Man
10. Sleeper
11. Just Enough