MOGWAI - Classic or Dud?

that sounds dirty now

Didn't the band at some point dismiss CODY?

I didn't know they did, specifically, no? I believe they prefer their later more fine-tuned and subtle material over the rougher earlier albums in general, though.

Rock Action was their best record. It was the record most like an actual band trying to make a record people would love with songs, themes, lyrics, melodies and ideas. It's a record I can still enjoy to this day, and it's the only Mogwai record that contains none of the elements they're actually known for (guitar freakouts, the dubious masculinity of their late "metal" period, soundtracks, boring drumming). Dave Fridmann on the mix? Must be a good thing then.

Some great lyrics on Rock Action: What would you do / If you saw spaceships over Glasgow / Would you feel that / Every aircraft, every camera / Was a wish that / Wasn't granted. (Not sure if that's how it really goes.)

Actually a lot of it sounds like the music for Minecraft now. Enduring legacy!

I agree that Rock Action is the best Mogwai album - it's very controlled and methodical in a way they unfortunately never really tried out again.

EP+6, tho not technically an album, is preferable to any of their full lengths.

That one's great too.

Hang on a minute. I think I'm risking doing a disservice to Mr Beast, which I'm listening to now for the first time since the days following its release. By 2006, the year this album came out, I was becoming a fucking anti-rock weirdo but, as always, I dutifully download whatever the newest Mogwai was at the time and listen to it once or twice. I remember giving this one a "hrmph, I guess that's sort of okay, why do they have to do all that guitar metal stuff."

Something I've learned at age 35 that I didn't know at 30 or 25 or 20 is that if someone's œuvre—not just music, btw—appears monotonous and repetitive to you as a young person, well, let's say that when you get old you will probably end up viewing slow, iterative improvement as more artistically rewarding than you used to. In fact, you may come to appreciate someone's career primarily based on its stylistic continuity and those same subtle adjustments made to a single set of musical building blocks.

Almost every building block on Mr Beast has a 1:1 parallel with something on Rock Action, but in every case it's a significant upgrade. Mogwai albums are like Apple's desktop operating system upgrades. Sometimes you're disappointed there's not really any new "features," but as a grownup you end up appreciating the bug fixes more than the features anyway.

Plus as a 35 year old I'm much, much more into sludgy metal guitar than I was ten years ago ;-)

congrats on doing your absolute damnedest to spin "mogwai's albums have sucked progressively harder since 2003" into a positive.

Actually doing my damnedest to spin "my life since 2003" into a positive. But also discovering a weird kind of Mogwai album bias among people of a similar age along the way. And actually I think Mogwai's doing just fine, thank you very much.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28jny6_mogwai-full-concert-live-pitchfork-music-festival-paris_music

3CD compilation

https://www.musicglue.com/mogwai-1/products/central-belters-cd/

Huh. Hadn't heard about that at all!

haha, cracking name

(mogwai are from Glasgow and environs in Scotland's "central belt". "belter" is a thing which is of high quality)

That looks pretty good but the gulf in quality between the material on the first CD and the others is pretty big.

Surprised they left 'Like Herod' off though.

Music For A Forgotten Future, Like Herod (BBC versh), Fear Satan and Ex Cowboy = CD4

xp I've always used "belter" to describe an object or action that is good, e.g. "Brain Easton's recent goal against Aberdeen for St Johnstone was a belter!", or to describe a person who may otherwise be considered a bit of a radge, bam, walloper or haver.

your first definition is the one I was going for as well.

It's a great album title whichever definition you go with.

Brilliantly...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HT: <a href="https://twitter.com/DulwichHamletFC";>@DulwichHamletFC</a> 1-0 <a href="https://twitter.com/bromleyfc";>@bromleyfc</a> Reece Johnson's belter after 4 mins the difference. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DHFC?src=hash";>#DHFC</a> <a href="https://t.co/00LvYmLQfQ";>pic.twitter.com/00LvYmLQfQ</a></p>— Forward The Hamlet (@ForwardHamlet) <a href="https://twitter.com/ForwardHamlet/status/656916486947213312";>October 21, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Well, that didn't work. Not that it was an essential contribution.

Forward The Hamlet @ForwardHamlet
HT: @DulwichHamletFC 1-0 @bromleyfc

Reece Johnson's belter after 4 mins the difference.

#DHFC
8:34 PM - 21 Oct 2015

who is this compilation designed for though?

Who are any compilations designed for?

Music For A Forgotten Future, Like Herod (BBC versh), Fear Satan and Ex Cowboy = CD4

Fear Satan is on CD1.

Mogwai are one of those bands that I honestly *REALLY WANNA LIKE*, but it just never seems to happen.

I feel a bit like this.

Fear Satan is on CD1.

― Matt DC, Thursday, October 22, 2015 9:02 AM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good, i only threw it on to pad the length out

I'm really loving the new LP, the re-recorded soundtrack to the Atomic film. It sounds like some of the EP+ 6 tunes with quieter guitars and horns. I like it a lot. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about it.

I absolutely love the new Atomic album too. It's has some really beautiful moments and I'm surprised at quite how well it works as a stand-alone listen. I think you're right in saying it sounds quite like that older period at points. I'd have to go back and check the specific songs, but Are You A Dancer? and Tzar remind me of the No Education = No Future EP, I think.

I got tickets yesterday to see them perform this alongside the film at Edinburgh International Festival in August.

It's easily the best album they've released in over a decade.

http://pitchfork.com/news/68150-trent-reznor-and-mogwai-score-leonardo-dicaprio-climate-change-film-before-the-flood/

For what it's worth, I listened to Atomic a couple of times right after the Orlando massacre, and heard some of it on the radio since, and it's always seemed somber but alert, all that good shit.

Who's up in this? I'm shitfaced and want to put in a Migwau record. I have them all up until 2007 you choose

Rock Action still my favorite.

me too

Toss up between Happy Songs for Happy People and Young Team for me.

that one from like, 2010 is pretty decent

a metalhead friend acquaintance went to go see them live and whined after that they were 'way too loud' which i kind of loved tbh

I'd probably have plumped for the Govt Commissions album.

Anyone heard Burns work with Kangding Ray's Daniel Letelier as SUMS yet? An EP is due soon.
Interview: http://www.factmag.com/2017/03/28/sums-kangding-ray-barry-burns-interview/

Rock Action for me too. But yet to hear a recording of Two Rights that comes anywhere close to how it sounds live.

I guess I need to see them live again. I've probably seen them do that one at least once but those moments are lost in time like tears in the fucking rain.

I have a boot somewhere in which the lads mix in a Martin Luther King speech over 2 Rights.

not an album but EP+6 for me

rock action as an album is quite good

then come on die young

there was a time when young team was my fave tho but i grew out of it (tracy still great track)

Details of the new album 'Every Country's Son' were announced this morning, out 1st September 2017. First track "Coolverine" sounds solid, if not immediately earth shattering.

Tracklisting: Coolverine, Party In The Dark, Brain Sweeties, Crossing The Road Material, aka 47, 20 Size, 1000 Foot Face, Don't Believe The Fife, Battered At A Scramble, Old Poisons, Every Country's Sun

I'm still very excited. Produced by Dave Fridmann, talk of at least one "pop" song, plus it's apparently a long album, so there should be an epic or two.

Because I was bored and because a mate (in Rutland) want a comp...

Mogwai Fear Rutland

Yes, I Am A Long Way From Home (Young Team)
Stanley Kubrick (EP + 6)
Glasgow Megasnake (Burning)
Kids Will Be Skeletons (Happy Songs)
Cody (CODY)
You Don't Know Jesus (Rock Action)
We're No Here (Mr Beast)
New Paths to Helicon Pt.1 (Govt. Commissions)
Ratts of the Capital (Happy Songs)
Punk Rock (CODY)
Mogwai Fear Satan (Young Team)
2 Rights Make 1 Wrong (Burning)
Superheroes of BMX (4 Satin)
Small Children in the Background (EP + 6)
My Father, My King (My Father My King EP)

35 minutes of official video from the 6 music live thing they did yesterday lunchtime. might be available in audio-only mode for foreigners. and i think it might be red-buttonable for those of you reading this on their televisions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b097slq0/6-music-live-2017-7-mogwai