Once when I was about 15 and expected different things from my music I went through a serious post-rock phase, a couple years after weaning myself from my Linkin Park phase (boo, hiss). Whatever, like you were never 13. You've gotta start somewhere.Anyways, I went to see Sigur Ros one night in high school, and it was awesome, except Mogwai was playing across town at a 21+ venue, and I wished I could've seen em both. But with Godspeed You! Black Emperor on a reunion tour (I have a ticket, am extremely excited) and Mogwai out in support of their impressively-titled new LP Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, maybe I'll get my chance.
This album is no Young Team, nor is it Come On, Die Young or even Mr. Beast. There are some rather catchy songs! Almost...pop! Of course you have your requisite monumental walls of guitar sound, but "San Pedro" reads more Sonic Youth than Slint. Like rock, without the post-. You won't find a ten to twelve minute epic like "Christmas Steps" on this album, but I'm ok with that. I guess I outgrew the need for slow building gloominess, and so did Mogwai. They've managed somehow to preserve their guitar stylings, while dabbling in almost alarming electronics on "Mexican Grand Prix" or DJ Shadow-style melancholy on "Letters to the Metro". Hell, "George Square Thatcher Death Party" sounds like an LCD Soundsystem instrumental, until the autotune (!) comes in!
"To Raging To Cheers" and "Rano Pano" are more of what we would expect Mogwai to sound like, but this newfound levity has found its way into these tracks as well. So I'm hoping if I catch these guys in April, I'll have a great time, and still get my face and ears properly abused by guitars. The album concludes with a modest by Mogwai standards 8.5 minute mini-epic entitled "You're Lionel Richie", which works as a nice post-rock coda, on an album that may be post-post-rock? Brings a smile to my face, anyways.
Mogwai - San Pedro by subpop Mogwai - George Square Thatcher Death Party by Henry Coachella
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