Scottish duo Arab Strap are no strangers to horror. Their video for 2024’s “Strawberry Moon” went into lycanthrope territory. Now they’ve released a video for new single “Glamour Magick” that is body horror a la The Substance or David Cronenberg.
Even without the video, the song takes a scalpel to the beauty industry that gets wilder with every stanza, set to a heavy krautrock groove:
I pumped my face full of a stranger’s fat;
I did abdominal lipo, now my tummy’s so flat!
It takes years off me!I bought big fat lips from a backstreet surgeon,
then I bathed in the blood of a thousand virgins.
It takes years off me!
“Glamour Magick is about the pressure to look youthful, and how far we might go to hide our natural selves,” says Aidan Moffat. “It started with a few things I use regularly in middle age – caffeine shampoo, whitening toothpaste, eye cream etc. – and then I wondered how much further I’d be willing to go. New teeth, new hair, liposuction, eye-lifts, facial fat injections … how long until there’s nothing really left of me? It’s nothing new, of course – the end of the song mentions the Fountain of Youth and Greek goddess Hebe – and looking young has always been an inherent human desire. Time is our enemy, and we’re all spending money on trying to fight it – it’s just a question of how much we’re willing to pay.”
As for the video, which was directed by David Arthur, it features Moffat seeking the help of a cosmetic surgeon who may also be an occultist. These procedures are not cheap and may cost more than he expects, in lots of ways. “Glamour Magick” is creepy and clever and very well done. You can watch the video below.
Arab Strap’s new album Half Told Tales is out September 4 via Rock Action.