Mr. Beast

For those mogwai fans out there what the band have essentially done is repeat the styles of previous songs (with a few notable exceptions). The opener, Auto-Rock, is very much like I know you are but what am I? without the subtlety, and builds to an unsatisfactory climax, although at the same time sounds awesome with the volume at full pelt ( a rule which generally fits the whole album). This is quickly sated by the first of the non familiar tracks the ripping 'glasgow mega snake'( Suitably titled? answers on a postcard please...) which gives a tantalising glimpse of what mogwai could have sounded like if they had become an all out metal band, riffs solos and all(again full volume is required) and suddenly cuts to an abrupt end mid way through a sinister riff. From here things calm down and once again we are back in familiar territory, with the cody-esque acid food, a track which has all the beauty you would expect from a mogwai vocal song, followed by 'travel is dangerous' which is the closest mogwai track yet to being a standard verse/chorus construct. 'Team handed'is 'golden porsche' repackaged for mr beast...competent, but not endearing.

okay controversy time. Friend of the night is really good...despite single reviews on this album it sounds awsome. It probably appeals more to the sigur ros contigent of mogwai fans than the sonic youth/ My bloody valentine types, but it really is a beauty of a track, the piano works brilliantly and without cheese or sentimentality. it builds and loops and swirls around culminating in the defining moment of the album at 02:41 where the noise gives way to some simple piano.This is followed by MrBeasts xmas steps- 'Folk death 95' the building levels forming the quiet/loud contrast that built and defines mogwai. Emergency trap is much like 'team handed' really. The final track 'were no here' is like 'my father my king' cut down to five minuites and delivers the same amount of enjoyment per minuite as that track does only with more metal and bite.

There are only two complaints really;

1)'I chose horses' a beautiful instrumental but the japanese adds nothing. YES it is a beautiful language but does it have to be on there (especially when SPOKEN not SUNG)?its a unnnecessary burden and the instrumentation could have been used for an R U still in 2 it? type lyric.
2) its just too short...its as if the band has a brain timer that switches on and tells them its time to stop after 5 minuites. (viz: glasgow mega snake). This has a detriment on tracks such as team handed and emergency trap. On previous albums tracks of this type have made ambient interludes that offset some of the heavier or more rythmic tones to the album. Hre they seem like filler. However the shortness and varied styles makes this a perfect album for those new to mogwai..
in that sense it is an album showing what a band is capable of doing rather than showing the band doing it.
Nonetheless it is a solid musical work and deserves to be seen as another strong offering from one of britiains most consistent alternative(?) acts.

There's nothing especially bad about Mr Beast, but the title gives a clue as to why there's something amiss - the Young Team has, it seems, grown up and gone all respectable, and there's a definite edge lacking to the music. This is their most tired and lacklustre effort since EP+6, which was more of a collection of B sides than a proper album.

They still know how to serve up the rock, as Glasgow Mega Snake and Folk Death 95 - neat, single length encapsulations of Mogwai's noise terrorism - prove, along with actual single Friend of the Night, a pulsing piano-led waltz, whipped off into the sunset by soaring guitars. Unfortunately, one can’t help shake the feeling that they’ve done this all before, and to much greater effect.

There are stand-out tracks; Auto Rock is a stomping, stately, slightly oriental affair and opens the album extremely well, and Acid Food, with its winsome country guitars and xylophonics, is probably the chirpiest thing Mogwai have ever done, as well as the nearest they've got to a traditional song since Rock Action’s Take Me Somewhere Nice.

But there’s nothing that grabs you and really makes you take notice, as there has been in every single one of their previous LPs. Instead, Travel Is Dangerous strays perilously close to emo(!!!), while Team Handed and I Chose Horses are rather dreary, with the latter's Japanese poetry recital tacked on seemingly as an afterthought.

I'm still giving Mr Beast a good rating, but only because I'm a lifelong fan, and feel that an average Mogwai album is far superior to most other bands' best efforts. But I certainly wouldn't recommend this to any Mogwai virgins - try Happy Songs or Young Team if you really want to have your eyes opened and your ears blown into your skull.

Key Tracks: Glasgow Mega Snake, Travel Is Dangerous, We're No Here