Beast’s eclecticism and more traditional song structures make it a good starting point for anyone who’s scared of that ‘post’ pre-fix. Friend of the Night is one of the most beautiful, serene pieces of music Mogwai have ever authored, whilst Glasgow Mega Snake is one of their most devastatingly apocalyptic. McGee is well for his mastery of the hyperbolic comment but in this case, he might be on the money. "In fact," he continued, "it's possibly better than Loveless." Beast as "probably the best art rock album I've been involved with since (My Bloody Valentine’s) Loveless." With hindsight, however, it may well be the biggest transition the band made from one album to the next.įormer Creation Records head honcho Alan McGee once described Mr. With a running time of 38 minutes, Rock Action is Mogwai’s shortest album, and upon release, many complained that it was too slight. Elsewhere, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals lent his delectable Welsh tones to Dial: Revenge, an acoustic lament with sinister lyrics that took advantage of a quirk in the Welsh language. Two of the eight compositions here, You Don’t Know Jesus and 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, would remain staples in Mogwai’s sets for years to come, so strong were these advances into unknown territory. With multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns’ now a fully-fledged member of the band, Rock Action heralded the sound of a new Mogwai, one unafraid to bring in sine waves and robotic chants to expand the band’s palette.
The inviting, warm sonics of Coolverine are sublime, whilst Party in the Dark further pushes the band’s shoegaze credentials and accentuates the confidence that Stuart Braithwaite has only recently found in his all-too-rare vocals. Mogwai’s ninth full-length album is at once familiar and distinct from their previous work, with loud, distorted masterworks such as Old Poisons co-existing with the muted, graceful likes of Brain Sweeties. This is Mogwai exploring sonic templates and boundaries in a more intricately advanced way than the quiet-loud dynamics that typified their earliest work. Ritchie Sacramento (a touching tribute to Frightened Rabbits frontman Scott Hutchinson) may well take the honour for ‘Best Mogwai Song With A Vocal’ and the grandeur of Midnight Flit shows a band not prepared to rest on their laurels, even 10 albums in.Īs a fine culmination of Mogwai's career to date, As the Love Continues celebrates their storied past whilst marking out new territory for the future. The band’s first UK album chart-topper narrowly misses out on a spot in our top five. But even within this framework, Mogwai still utilise the element of surprise on the lilting and languid Replenish, set to a sample of a Christian talk show host decrying the evils of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. Here, the road (or should that be autobahn) was clear massive analog synths, pulsating electronic throbs and danceable tunes recalling an era lit by neon. This shift of emphasis reinvigorated the band after a couple of albums which had little sense of direction. Mogwai’s love of Kraftwerk shines on their eighth studio album as they push forth their electronic side like never before. Even Stuart Braithwaite’s shy vocal on CODY is a baller move, a subconscious coax to the listener who leans in to catch every sibilant of this haunting and hushed vocal, while the 30-minute triple threat of Ex-Cowboy, Chocky and Christmas Steps unite to deliver a most spectacular conclusion.
#SUBLIME ALBUMS FULL#
Introduced by a sample of Iggy Pop talking punk rock on a 1977 US TV show, Come On Die Young showed a band full of confidence, already aware that they didn’t want to get pigeon-holed for simply playing music to lose your hearing to. In their early years, Mogwai garnered a reputation as one of the loudest bands on the planet, so for their second album, the Scots turned the tables, producing a record of mainly quiet, introspective material that grew to a cacophonous climax across the course of the album.
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