Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Albums Of The Year: Number 5!

Mogwai
'The Hawk Is Howling'
As with their last release (2006's 'Mr Beast') The Men of Mog take up their regular number 5 slot in my albums of the year. How long can these hairy Scots keep putting out instrumental music before it gets old, you may ask? Never! Not when it's this good.

'The Hawk Is Howling' is sublime, beautiful, angry, thoughtful, and has one of the creepiest album covers I've ever seen.

And, as always, they've not scrimped on the fantastic track names either. If there was an award for best song titles, Mogwai would win all the time. This time the album opens with 'I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead'. Later we're treated to 'The Sun Smells Too Loud', before possibly the greatest song title I've ever heard. Track 7 gives us... wait for it... 'I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School'.

The thing is, it's not a gimmick. The titles work. 'I love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School' is not a joke. It's sinister, it's eerie, and yet has an underlining yearning. 'I'm Jim Morrison...' is almost a love letter from the man himself.

After god knows how many albums, are The Mog running out of steam? By this evidence, they're just getting started.

1 Comments:

Blogger Jon said...

Oooh, nice eagle action. Haven't actually heard this one (yes I know it's supposedly been at work for ages). Am defo tempted by the song titles, will have a listen tomorrow.

Next!

1:44 PM  

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