via//chicago

np: "Scotland's Shame" - Mogwai

I was really kind of surprised by the relatively lukewarm reviews the latest from these Scottish post-rock stalwarts was getting, but thankfully others are starting to recognize how good this thing. I'm not going to say anything crazy like that this is a better album than Young Team or Come On Die Young, but for my money - this is easily their strongest release since 2001's Rock Action. The two previous full lengths, 2003's Happy Songs for Happy People and 2006's Mr. Beast, always struck me as a little too spotty to leave a favorable impression (despite some strong individual moments on each - "Ratts of the Capital" and "Glasgow Mega-Snake" to name a pair). The Hawk is Howling, however, fires on all cylinders right from the get-go and I'm finding myself anxious to return to it already.

The opening pairing of "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" and "Batcat" works really well, with the former building up to the noisy full-bore crescendo of the latter - a strong opening statement. But my favorite run would have to be the final four tracks of the disc, "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" through the stunning closer "The Precipice". Totalling nearly 30 minutes by themselves, these flow together really well and form a pretty damn good soundtrack to the confused, teetering on the brink state of the economy we've been dealing with lately. I was reading a story on today's horrific 777 point drop and "Scotland's Shame" seemed to just fit. It was kind of spooky. Longtime fans may complain that this isn't anything Mogwai hasn't done before and I can ultimately see that point, but I think this is such a successful album because it feels so familiar yet packs a much harder punch than the band has for some time now. I was also struck by the brief, subtle forays into psychedelica with the organs and softly cooing guitar drone throughout "The Sun Smells Too Loud". All in all, this is a pretty solid release for a band that hadn't done a whole lot for me in the recent past.

Mogwai - "The Sun Smells Too Loud" (taken from The Hawk is Howling)
Mogwai - "Scotland's Shame" (taken from The Hawk is Howling)