Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (2011)

Usually people associate Mogwai to very heavy instrumentation that builds from very quiet to very loud and then back to quiet in a very particular way, since 1998 Mogwai is the perfect band to build up the noise and give you very long and perfect musical masterpieces with careful crescendos, heavy guitars, bumping bass and solid drum banging; if this bands says that Hardcore Will Never Die, instantly you start wondering what’s it all about.

Over the (more than) 15 years Mogwai have been making music this LP, for me, marks a new approach to a more straight forward music, if the depression they transmitted on their previous albums was not your cup of tea you should check out this more straight forward sound, after all, that’s what hardcore is all about, straight forward, not so calm crescendos, and a build of music making a straight up in your face kind of melody that strikes you with amazing natural force.

It’s strange that in an album that is called Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will the opening track called White Noise doesn’t commit to noise or to hardcore, and is not until Rano Pano (the first song revealed and available as a free download) that the album starts to get the feeling of something really in your face, this doesn’t mean that the others don’t have this heavy hardcore hidden some place, in the case of Mexican Grand Prix the hardcore is present in the mechanical modifications of the vocals but not really in the instrumentation; and this certainly doesn’t mean that Mogwai loose the ethereal sounds that made them great their quiet moments of previews releases, just makes the experimentation of the sound less depressing and predictable…always waiting for the crescendos.

I always find refreshing when amazingly depressive artists find a light and give you hope in a believable way, this has happened to me with people like Sigur Ròs, Antony And The Johnsons or Jay-Jay Johanson, and now beautifully accomplished by Mogwai, I’m really enjoying this LP and hope you do as well.

Tracklist:

1. White Noise
2. Mexican Grand Prix
3. Rano Pano
4. Death Rays
5. San Pedro
6. Letters To The Metro
7. George Square Thatcher Death Party
8. How To Be A Werewolf
9. Too Raging To Cheers
10. You're Lionel Richie

Rate: 8.3/10

Google That Shit!