I agree with your general point that GMS is concentrated essence de Mogwai. A soundtrack for a Buckfast advert never shown. That is it’s essential greatness 
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4 Likes
Put that on the band’s tombstone 
1 Like
Personally think having a loud track right near the start is great for momentum
These are the types of track that got me interested when I wasn’t a post-rock nerd
Team Handed is one of my Mogwai favourites
I remember with that and Bat Cat feeling that earlier albums would incorporate that loud stompiness into the quieter tracks whereas there felt like more of a distinction between the post-rock atmospheric tracks and the big ragers
1 Like
I think I need to revisit Mr Beast more often. Some really great songs but something about how they’re sequenced still feels inexplicably off.
Good album tho.
2 Likes
Midweek song poll time! Pick your top two, and I’ll stick them on our DiS is Mogwai playlist.
Mr Beast
- Auto Rock
- Glasgow Mega-Snake
- Acid Food
- Travel Is Dangerous
- Team Handed
- Friend Of The Night
- Emergency Trap
- Folk Death 95
- I Chose Horses
- We’re No Here
0 voters
1 Like
Another very tricky one.
These and Emergency Trap are the ones I’m not particularly bothered about, funnily enough. Love this album but I Chose Horses is my least favourite thing on there
The snare on this
3 Likes
This is my personal fave Mogwai album (after Ten Rapid, which I don’t count in their studio album list)!
‘We’re No Here’ is, imo, one of the finest songs they’ve put on record, ‘Travel Is Dangerous’ & ‘Acid Food’ also big stand outs.
Only negative for me is that ‘Glasgow Mega Snake’ to me sounds like an instrumental Muse track (sorry if you can’t un-hear that now!)
4 Likes
Another top Mogwai record for me. Probably not quite at the same level as Happy, but very nearly. A really strong set of songs with a few all timers in there. Reckon you could make an argument that Happy through to Hardcore is their best run of albums, but then I guess I like Hawk a lot more than most. Agree with @manches that they seem to have developed a clearer distinction between the ragers and the more atmospheric tracks here, but I don’t mind that and think it works over the course of an album.
2 Likes
Feeling like a bit of an outlier
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Listened to this a few times this week. Agree with a lot of the comments here that there are some absolute belters on here, but something about it is a bit unsatisfying. Don’t know if that’s tracklisting or something else. Feels like they’ve used a “Mogwai Song Generator” in places and created stuff that’s good but lacks a bit of personality. I mean, you can’t really blame them for going through the motions every now and then, especially after four albums and loads of other good stuff.
3 Likes
Right then Monsieur Beast. Let’s find out how good you really are. Vote!
Mr Beast
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0 voters
1 Like
Good album but not great.
7
2 Likes
I went for 7.
Looking at their career from this way, there’s definitely a sense that they find a groove around this point that they largely keep in. I think it’s unfair to say that’s a rut since I think other albums (Hardcore… and Rave Tapes imo) have their own feel and character to them - but I think this one (and maybe Hawk?) most feel like Mogwai on auto-pilot
Even if it’s a good auto-pilot and still a cut above a lot of the more standard-issue twinkly cinematic crescendo goes BWAAAHHH post-rock
3 Likes
gave it a 7, been critical of it but it’s still a very good album and if it was by another band I might have even given it an 8 - they set such high standards.
3 Likes
6 for me. Just find it very meh and it’s not an album I go back to very much. I think pretty much every song on it they’ve got a better version.
1 Like
Hawk will be interesting cause I’ve not properly listened to it in ages partly because, when I imported the CD to my digital library, two of the tracks somehow corrupted so descend into weird white noise
I’ll have to bung the CD on (and possibly finally get round to re-exporting it)
2 Likes