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Avg: 4.0 (282 ratings)
- Date Released: March 7, 2006
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Math Rock, Indie Rock
- Label: Matador
Scottish soundscapers soothe their savage musical beast.
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We Say...
Over the last nine years, Mogwai has been closing the space between "pretty and heavy" and "pretty heavy." Since their 1997 debut, Young Team, the Scottish quartet have made it safer for bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor to go emo on metal, bliss out and indulge in beautiful melody. As more bands join the pretty/heavy party, so Mogwai continues dolling up.
Fans of fury may be initially disappointed with Mogwai's fifth album, Mr. Beast. Produced by Tony Doogan in the band's newly purchased Castle of Doom studio, Mr. Beast lives up to its name as a formerly crazed creature now civilized enough to don a suit and walk the daylight. The intro "Auto Rock" announces this in one long, potentially explosive crescendo stabilized by a consonant piano melody. "Travel Is Dangerous" couples triumphant guitar caterwaul with catchy vocal harmonies that could have come from Sunny Day Real Estate. The clean-channel guitar, organ smolders and tumbling bass of "Acid Food" has a Yo La Tengo tinge, and "I Chose Horses" trades noise for vocoder squelches and poetically delivered Japanese spoken word. If it weren't for "Glasgow Mega-snake," a distorted instrumental guitar duel with big rock drumming, you might never know how much Mogwai used to brood. -
They Say...
Possibly the most accessible yet sophisticated album Mogwai has released, Mr. Beast strips away most of the electronic embellishment of their recent work in favor of a back-to-basics sound that returns to and expands on the approach they pioneered on Young Team. Mr. Beast is also a surprisingly spontaneous-sounding album -- in the best possible sense, its freshness makes it feel like a recorded practice session and also helps give relatively delicate pieces like "Team Handed" the same amount of impact that heavy, searing tracks like the closer, "We're No Here," have. Interestingly, more of Mr. Beast tends toward the former kind of song than the latter; "Friend of the Night," "Emergency Trap," and the glorious, slow-burning album opener, "Auto-Rock," give the album an unusually refined, even elegant feel that is underscored by the prominent use of piano and lap steel in the arrangements. On songs like "Acid Food" and the magnificent "I Chose Horses" -- which features cavernously deep bass and spoken word vocals by Tetsuya Fukagawa from the Japanese hardcore band Envy -- Mr. Beast feels downright pastoral. However, Mogwai doesn't give up their heavy side entirely, as the aforementioned "We're No Here" and "Glasgow Mega-Snake" show; any song that has either "mega" or "snake" in the title should rock, and this one does, kicking off with a claustrophobic snarl of guitars that makes this one of the most intense pieces Mogwai has ever recorded. Mr. Beast manages to be immediate without sounding dumbed-down..
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| 01. |  |
Auto Rock |
4:18 |
|
| 02. | |
Glasgow Mega-Snake |
3:35 |
|
| 03. | |
Acid Food |
3:40 |
|
| 04. | |
Travel is Dangerous |
4:01 |
|
| 05. | |
Team Handed |
3:58 |
|
| 06. | |
Friend of the Night |
5:30 |
|
| 07. | |
Emergency Trap |
3:31 |
|
| 08. | |
Folk Death 95 |
3:34 |
|
| 09. | |
I Chose Horses |
5:13 |
|
| 10. | |
We're No Here |
5:39 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 42:59 Total Length
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Credits
- Craig Armstrong - Keyboard Arrangements // Greg Calbi - Mastering // Tony Doogan - Producer // Tony Doogan - Engineer // Tony Doogan - Mixing // Tetsuya Fukagawa - Vocals // Amanda Church - Artwork // Jaffacake Kid - Design // Jaffacake Kid - Layout Design
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