Too much beauty, not enough beast!
In their eleventh year since their humble beginnings in the grab and snatch underbelly of Glasgow, Mogwai - who presumably are named after that cute little fellow that we were told never to feed after midnight, or spill water on - are back with their fifth studio album 'Mr Beast'.
First song 'Auto Rock' is a slightly cumbersome instrumental of mainly slow ivory tinkling and faintly long guitar chords, with a little sprinkling of electro noises for good measure. It builds up with a small beat turning into an industrial thud and ends in rather teenage anti-climax...'Glasgow Mega-Snake' could well be a boasting line from any porridge scoffing caber tosser but is in fact a meaty monster of a song with thick guitars and powerful beats.
Now perhaps I'm just a simple country lad, but I do prefer lyrics in my songs and my wish is granted on 'Acid Food' that's a little reminiscent of Beastie Boy's first 'fourth member' Mark Nishita if he played his keyboard chords on a guitar...There's more neo-classical piano passages in the beautiful 'Friend In The Night', and just like the song before 'Team Handed', they are slices of easy listening, but I am left wondering whether I really want an album sprinkled with these?
Insomnia may well affect 4 - 5% of the population, however you only have to listen to 'Emergency Trap' on repeat with its slow plodding piano pieces and you would sure to be visiting the land of nod in no time at all! 'Folk Death 95' has a better title than the song, which is as mellow and unobtrusive as the title is attention grabbing and thought provoking.
Now having read that Tetsuya Fukagawa, the lead singer of Japanese hardcore band Envy, was vocalist on next song 'I Chose Horses', then I may be forgiven in thinking that this might be a real balls-to-the-wall number. With tough music like we found in the aforementioned 'Glasgow Mega-Snake' and the additional shouting vocals from Mr Fukagawa; however what we get is another beautiful, pretty flowers-in-the-spring-meadow melody and some undecipherable talking - a real opportunity missed there, I'm afraid.
It's hard to be negative towards a band with phenomenal musical talent and a proven track record of remixing, however for me this album couldn't quite make up it's mind what it wanted to be and although fans of Mogwai will no doubt love this to bits, I wonder whether it will attract any new fans. Too much beauty, not enough beast...