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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Old Team, 20 Feb 2006
It was bound to happen eventually. Everyone's favourite Scottish sonic sculptors have finally gone and made an album that's, well, a bit dull. Even their biggest fans have to admit their music has always threatened this - the repetition, the lack of vocals, the repetition (ha ha). But they'd always steered clear by constantly tinkering with the formula, pumping up the volume and, to be blunt, just writing beautiful pieces of music that make your hairs stand up and rock.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.
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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Here come the mogwai hordes...., 9 April 2006
Mr Beast is the first mogwai album to give me a sense of real deja vu, yet at the same time leaving me feeling fullfilled.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.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not Mr. Best, 6 April 2006
Mr. Beast is Mogwai's fifth full length LP, and their first in three years. The album basically brings together everything that the band have achieved with their previous works, and delivers it in 10 nice manageable chunks of no more than 5 and a half minutes or so (relatively short by their standards). It's this restraint which proves to be both the album's greatest strength and its greatest weakness.
There's plenty of fine songs here to add to Mogwai's already impressive catalogue. The uber-riffing Glasgow Mega Snake is as direct as the band's ever been in the rock stakes, and offers a welcome shift in pace from their standard relaxed tempo. Album closer We're No Here is better still, as the guitars slowly layer on top of one another to deliver a dense and searing finale. Opening track Auto Rock builds up steadily in classic Mogwai style, its rudimentary drum beat getting ever louder as the track progresses.
The greater emphasis on vocals is welcome as well, although the vocals remain pleasantly understated, so as not to detract from the music. It's a trick which works beautifully on both Travel Is Dangerous and Acid Food. The spoken words of Tetsuya Fukagawa on the serene I Chose Horses are also an inspired touch.
But during the midway stage, the album seems to lose steam. Both Team Handed and Emergency Trap, whilst perfectly listenable, are instantly forgettable. First single, the piano-led Friend Of The Night is pleasant, but the shimmering guitars which lift it to another level when performed live are curiously low in the mix here. Whilst such songs would have worked fine on earlier albums such as Young Team as a means of bringing together the more substantial, more sprawling songs, here it just doesn't work as the songs are of such similar length.
The truth is that Mogwai are one of the few bands that can justify the extra playing time of a 7, 10 or even 16 minute song (see the glorious Mogwai Fear Satan). By limiting the length of these songs, Mogwai have stymied their creativity somewhat. That's not to say that this isn't another fine album. In fact, Mr. Beast probably stands as the band's most accessible work, and an ideal introduction to one of Britain's most talented bands. But to hear the band in full flow, Young Team remains the one to go for.Key Tracks: Glasgow Mega Snake, Travel Is Dangerous, We're No Here
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