Young Team

We Say...

Review by Todd Burns

Bass guitarist Dominic Aitchison is listed as “DEMONIC” in the liner notes to Mogwai’s Young Team. Yep. Sounds about right. The Scottish quartet’s debut album is a vicious one, full of viscous guitar feedback, serrated riffs and a healthy dose of anger. It’s the glorious sound of guitars being unleashed to their full volume potential. It’s the sound of four dudes getting together and making a racket.

The thing that made Mogwai so beloved, though, was the presence of the complete opposite as well. “Like Herod”’s explosive climaxes would be nothing without equal bouts of patient melodicism. “Radar Maker” and “With Portfolio” would merely be ambient curiosities, if they weren’t besieged by a torrential downpour of guitar on either side.

Young Team is often called Mogwai’s finest moment, though guitarist Stuart Braithwaite once complained that when it was recorded, the group was “young and naïve and had too little time.” The truth is that it’s both. Far from the disaster that Braithwaite believed it to be, Young Team benefits from youthful indiscretion. There is raw energy flowing through it, even though Mogwai clearly were already working within the soft-loud/crescendocore template that would define them.

This recklessness is perfectly captured by Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat on the album’s only true vocal cut, “R U Still in 2 It?” He never sings, just speaks, “We should go into town and spend some money,” and goes on to offer mundane options for entertainment. A movie, a drink. But then the group comes in and reminds you what that disaffected cool is hiding: “Will you still miss me, when I'm gone?” At this point, Mogwai were still romantics—no matter how much demonic feedback they couched their work within. They were also never better.

This reissue of the album has been remastered and contains a second disc of B-sides, rarities and live performances. We recommend “Honey,” which originally appeared on a tribute to the Spacemen 3.