The cover of Elephant Shoe features a close-up photo of a sleeping woman's head, her arm hiding her face from her eyes downward as the arm curves around the back of her neck in a gesture that can be read as both utterly unself-conscious and protective. The back cover image is another shot of presumably the same woman in a different posture, but her facial features have been Photoshopped into a smooth expanse of skin - presumably to protect her privacy, but the effect is somewhat creepy all the same. That combination of nearly voyeuristic intimacy and a vaguely threatening sense of distant abstraction permeates Arab Strap's music as well. Vocals sound very close-mic'd and understated, guitars and basses wound together in sparse meshwork, yet most rhythm tracks come from the cold precision of a primitive-sounding drum machine. Lyrics typically read like diary entries, drink, sex, dirty clothes, and dirty sheets prominently featured, but the casual surface covers keen observation. "Tanned" tells of a couple vacationing in Greece, the narrator getting sunburnt, trying not to get caught looking at topless sunbathers, the two going out for dinner and drinks. The song ends "For the first time in ages we just sat and chatted, then staggered home happy, tanned, and pissed": but it's that opening phrase that's telling. Sonically, the CD displays an impressive sense of spatiality and texture. The songs' arrangements are somehow simultaneously dense, deep, and also open and transparent. Songs are built on rhythm machine, guitar, and bass, but layers of keyboard, cello, and the occasional horn add dimension."Direction of Strong Man" might have the fullest sound of any song here, with acoustic drums emphatically played, densely articulated guitars, and a dreary, distorted Hammond organ as backdrop. But even with the huge sound of the organ, the song never sounds busy - instead, its close density gives way to a reticent piano sounding against the guitar background. Like that cover portrait, Arab Strap's music may at first seem sleepy and simple, but its subtleties develop into something haunting, beautiful, and a bit troubling in its sense of intimacy.

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