If I had to choose one word to describe this album, or Mogwai in general, it would be INTENSE. Luckily, I don’t have to choose one word, because I’m writing an article, and that means I will use many words strung together in sentences. But if I had to, a one word review of INTENSE would suffice. In all capital letters.
Mr. Beast is an all-consuming album. It’s heavy. It’s heavy like being trapped in an airless underground cave, covered in damp wool and drunk on Wild Turkey is heavy - physically, mentally and emotionally. Except that it’s heavy and profoundly beautiful. The last time I was trapped in an underground cave, strapped with wool and hitting the bottle, I remember it kind of sucking.
This is their 5th studio release since their formation in 1995, and it’s as unrelenting and complex as its predecessors. Mogwai are known for their instrumental epic walls of sound, and very rarely (the track “Cody” from Come on Die Young comes to mind) are vocals included, although when they’ve been incorporated, the result was striking. On this album, two songs are graced with vocals, and the effect is compelling.
The songs are tightly woven into one another, and give the feeling of one long song with movements rather than separate tracks. If the album were to soundtrack a film, it would have to be a film of darkness, sadness, and strength, with moments of light. And it would have to rock. Because Mogwai is louder than loud.
I’ve seen Mogwai live on two occasions. The first was at the Cure’s Curiosa festival. The volume was so exquisitely excessive that I got physically ill (ok, maybe the giant alcoholic beverage I drank played some role) and had to back away from the stage. I stood next to a far-off tree, sweating and panting and seeing double, but still captivated by their performance. The second time was early March of this year, the tour for this album. The losers stood in the back, hands held over ears (seriously, people were doing this), and the rest of us (who are too young or dumb to realize we are probably causing massive damage to our hearing) clustered around the stage. Mogwai is to be seen, heard AND felt. It’s so loud you can FEEL the sound in the air and rumbling up through your feet. It’s an experience, overwhelming and good.
Get the album and turn it up to 10. That’s all I have to say.
Release date: March 7, 2006
Rating: 9/10
8 Comments »
really an awesome album. (and review…thanks, amber)
but don’t you know enough to wear earplugs at shows? i say this sincerely and as a live show junkie with serious hearing issues…earplugs make the world a better place. invest in some now.
well, i used to be staunchly against earplugs because i had it fixed in my head that louder was better. if i still couldn’t hear properly the next day, the band did a good job! hahaha such is youth.
i am beginning to come around though. i should get some. i’m already blind as a bat, i really don’t want to be deaf along with it.
As a former club kid, I highly recommend the reusable rubber ones. They come in multiple sizes (this is especially great if you have freakishly small ears like me), they don’t look as conspicuous as the others (which only look cool if the venue is blacklit) and, in my experience, they cut out the excess noise without cutting out everything.
hahaha, that makes two former club kids on the ssc staff. ah, the good old days…i can’t really remember ‘em.
: p
Any album that triggers a discussion about earplugs HAS to be good.
My right ear has been a little fucked up in the upper register ever since i saw KISS on their “Hot in the Shade” tour in 1990 with Slaughter and Faster Pussycat supporting. Eric Carr’s tank-esque drums pounded my eardrums into mush.
Then he got a brain tumor and died.
Oh, I remember the good old days, all right… I spent most of them playing designated driver.
Any future cred I might have ever achieved was permanently lost when I saw Linda Ronstadt as a 6th grader in 1990, but my eardrums are still pretty much intact.
I guess we can’t all be rockers. Oh well.
[…] of the millennium when i was obsessed with scottish bands. snow patrol, belle & sebastian, mogwai, trashcan sinatras, arab strap, the reindeer section… anything that came out of glasgow […]
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Comment by Sam E. — November 17, 2006 @ 12:41 pm
That good, eh? I missed this when it came out — I’ll have to check it out.