Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Mogwai

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Sub Pop (2011)

Poor Mogwai. Rarely does a band arrive fully formed, but when Mogwai released Young Team all the way back in 1997, it sounded like they’d been playing post rock all their lives. Somehow, now that they’ve been playing post rock for a good portion of their lives, they’re not doing it as well. Most bands have a fairly predicable career arc: it takes them a little while to find their sound, and then release the best material of their career (unfortunately, usually limited to an album or two). After that, bands usually release album after album of attempts to recapture that former glory, and sometimes these albums are pretty good, but typically they’re not fooling anybody. Of course, there are many exceptions to the path I’ve just laid out, with bands like Radiohead releasing pretty amazing material through their entire careers, and other bands that no one likes to talk about that have never released a single good album.

So where does that leave Mogwai, a band that climaxed too soon? Surely they realize that it is doubtful they will ever write a song that is as good as Mogwai Fear Satan again, and yet they keep writing new songs. You can’t blame them, though, because they’ve released some pretty good material since, actually. Rock Action, specifically, holds a special place in my heart, even if it has nowhere near the significance of Young Team. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will falls somewhere in the middle of their post-Young Team offerings.

Hardcore doesn’t really do a lot to advance Mogwai’s sound, but they lay down some excellent melodies on a few tracks, and their trademark - the slow build that has become typical of post-rock – is found in a few places on the album, including standouts “Death Rays” and “White Noise.” Unfortunately, though, the band’s forays into heavier material – something that’s usually worked for them in the past – don’t quite come together.  Tracks like “San Pedro” and “Too Raging To Cheers” just end up getting mired in the sludge and sounding dirgey, without much emotional payoff. Mogwai also make fairly liberal use of vocoder on this album, and every time it appears it’s really just annoying and distracting. “You’re Lionel Richie” comes close to recapturing their former glory as it builds into a pretty bombastic climax, but is still missing something.

Actually, the best track on Hardcore is “How To Be a Werewolf”, because it’s free of any sort of gimmick. When they drop the idea of trying to be heavy and just try and make something beautiful, it really works. Hey, maybe I’ve just come up with a new career arc for Mogwai. I doubt they’ll listen to me, but I’ve never released anything as good as Young Team, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt - for now.

-Ian Baker