Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Albums Of The Year: No. 3

MOGWAI - 'Mr Beast'


An appropriate way to describe this album would be to just hum my thoughts, as there's very few words on the album. However, that probably wouldn't make for the most scintillating blog, so sod it.

Mogwai are ace. And that's that. A brilliant Scottish band that make mainly instrumental music... nay, opuses! Chances are you've already heard their stuff in a film, or on an advert and thought to yourself 'Ooh, bit good, that is'. And you would be right, sir.

And they're skill at naming things too. Apart from the band name (which, I'm sorry, could well be the best name for a band ever), Mogwai have a habit of concocting the most GENIUS titles for songs in recent history. Previous tracks have included 'Burn Girl Prom Queen', 'May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door' and, my personal favourite song title, 'I Know You Are But What Am I?'. Gentlemen of the Mog, I kiss the hem of your collective garment.

They haven't let us down on that front this time either, filling this album with slow-burning epics like 'I Chose Horses', then wonderfully juxtaposing them with fuzz-fuelled rants such as stand-out track 'Glasgow Mega-Snake'. It's everything you love about Mogwai, but more so. Heck, just for the fun of it, they throw a french monologue and slidey country guitars into the mix this time.

It's strange how the term 'emo' has been assigned mostly to shitty sub-punk bands. It's supposedly a term that means 'emotional rock', and if that is indeed the case, then taken in it's literal meaning it applies perfectly to Mogwai. See, while others bands make songs about emotions, Mogwai make songs that ARE emotions. In fact, they may be beyond genres, as 'Mr Beast' comes across as nothing less than art. And that's a good bridge, because when art can make you feel something... well, that's kind of the point, isn't it?

On a sidenote, on the rare occasions when they put vocals on songs, all the band members are so "shit-scared of singing" they each have to drink a bottle of vodka just to get near a microphone.

Did I mention they were ace?

2 Comments:

Blogger Jon said...

Good use of the words 'ace' and 'skill' there. I hope to see 'wicked' 'rad' and 'gear' in the next one. I would like to say good choice, but I haven't heard the bloody thing as you haven't brought it into work yet!

2:48 PM  
Blogger AlphIANo said...

It's been in sodding wicked work for the last 3 rad months you gearing arse!

5:07 PM  

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