I proclaim today Mogwai day, because the totally super awesome Scottish band is back in LA and playing at the Wiltern tonight! I can honestly say this is going to be one of the best nights and concerts of the year - yeah, it's not built up or anything. But first, let's talk about the album they're touring under.
After 2006's brilliant Mr. Beast, the band put out the soundtrack to Zidane, which features some new tunes and reworked songs, but The Hawk Is Howling is truly their follow up, and it is certainly one of the top albums of the year. A mix of mellow instrumental post-rock and wailing, driving climaxes, it is very much the Mogwai fans have loved over the last decade.
"I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" starts the album, and after the brooding electric piano intro, the song airily drifts along. It's a good starting point as it feels like it could have been from the previous album. "Batcat", which is being released as an EP single, will kick your sorry ass. Like "Glasgow Mega-Snake" before it, the second track is a gut punch and almost non-stop rock.
"Danphe And The Brain" and "Local Authority" follow. There are two of those songs that you can absolutely see getting grabbed for a film or television show, like so many of their songs have in the past. As the last few albums have steered the band in to more ambient territory, songs like these are the positive result of their addition of keys and electronic elements to their already textured guitar playing. there are very Radiohead-y elements here, especially in the latter, but I have to give credit to Mogwai for having played this style of music and charted that new terriorty before Thom Yorke and company.
Over a month ago "The Sun Smells Too Loud" was put out as a precursor single, and I found it the same now as I did then - an experimental move that may sound refreshing against their style but not really that good. Even the worst Mogwai is better than 99% of other bands, but this pepppy, electro-pop tune has a (if you can believe) honky tonk / two-step bounce to it. Can I say that I'm happy they're not playing it thus far on tour? Oh yeah.
Track six, "Kings Meadow", brings the tried and true Mogwai back. It is reminiscent of their earlier albums and a very sad, sad song. Minor scale and all that stuff. I expect scores of art school girls to go all Silvia Plath with that in the background. "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" is currently my favorite song (sorry Batcat). This song is what I feel is the band's next great epic song. It follows in the steps of "Helicon 1", "Christmassteps", and "Ratts Of The Capital" while reminding you of the elements that make those the best from the band.
There's a very smooth transition in "Scotland's Shame" next, and then into "Thank You Space Expert". The three tracks combine for over 20 minutes of beautiful music and fit so well together. It's like a three act story that opens by building momentum, leading to a hardy aftermath, and finally resolving gently but absolutely. "The Precipice" tricks you at the end of the record, reaching a crescendo much like it's name and leaving the listener right at the edge before stopping. The song accelerates faster than "Auto Rock" on the previous album, and shows what happens when they take a song into overdrive. It is a great closing tune and a solid finish to over an hour's worth of innovative instrumental music.
The Hawk Is Howling comes out September 23, and you deserve good music like this.
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