Arab Strap‘s debut album ‘The Week Never Starts Round Here’ has been re-released, as a special 180g vinyl edition.

Also coming with a download, Chemikal Underground have made the seminal long-player available again, twenty-three years after its original 1996 release.

The band formed around core members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton in Falkirk in 1995 and split in 2006 after releasing six studio albums.

Recorded on the outskirts of Glasgow at MCM – where labelmates Mogwai and The Delgados also recorded their debuts and which would become the first iteration of Chemikal Underground’s sister operation Chem19 – the album’s master tapes have been refreshed by original recording engineer Paul Savage, whose has since become known for his work with Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand, Deacon Blue and The Twilight Sad.

Among the 13 tracks is what is perhaps the band’s best-known song, ‘The First Big Weekend’, which the pair wrote during a B-side session after the album was supposedly finished, and which brought the band to the attention of DJ John Peel. The rest is history.

Of the album, Aidan Moffat said: “We wanted to document our lives at that moment. The album sounds like a couple of confused young men trying to work themselves out in the hangover dawn – which is exactly what it was”.

“It’s a funny wee thing,” adds Malcolm Middleton. “I’ll always love it because it’s our first, but also because it’s naive and cheeky. ‘Real’ musicians probably hate it, but its strength is its lack of technicality.”

Track listing for the vinyl reissue is:

Side A: Coming Down / The Clearing / Driving / Gourmet / I Work In A Saloon / Wasting / 
General Plea To A Girlfriend

Side B: The First Big Weekend / Kate Moss / Little Girls / Phone Me Tonight / Blood / Deeper

The album is available now at the Chemikal Underground shop.