On Disc

Mogwai

The Hawk is Howling

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BY Jordan Timm   October 01, 2008 21:10

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For a band who use words so sparingly, Mogwai have always had a knack for titles. So let’s give them a gold star up front for naming the opening track of their seventh LP “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead.” The jacket sleeve is the extent of the wordplay on The Hawk is Howling; the Scottish post-rockers have released an entirely instrumental disc, one that reunites them with Andy Miller, the co-producer of their debut album Young Team. All the hallmarks of the Mogwai sound are here — considered atmospherics, distorted guitars, tension-and-release and loud-quiet-SHRIEKING LOUD dynamics. But despite a few outliers — the thrashy single “Batcat” and “The Sun Smells Too Loud,” which actually flirts with a pop-song melody — this is Mogwai by numbers, and doesn’t stray from the comfort zone they established on Mr. Beast and Happy Songs for Happy People. Mogwai are never bad, but they are becoming increasingly formulaic.

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