Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Album Review: Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will


As taken from DeadJournalist.com!

http://www.deadjournalist.com/DJdc/2011/01/17/album-review-mogwai-hardcore-will-never-die-but-you-will/

Album Review: Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
By Kevin Crawford

Scottish post-rock band Mogwai’s latest offering in the form of Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Willsees the band going in a new, more electronic-oriented direction than much of their past catalog. While the core trademark melodic instrumental sound is still present, you can definitely notice a difference from previous releases such as Happy Songs For Happy People and The Hawk Is Howling.

Fans of the older material may initially be thrown off guard, but listeners will soon recognize that this is a group that is willing to try new things, which ultimately pay off.

The first new key element is the glitch sound effects followed by a synthesized keyboard/vocoder arrangement that are heard in the track “Mexican Grand Prix”. Right from the get go, its noticeable this isn’t a repeat from the past.

In another major highlight track of the record, “Rano Pano” starts off with a more traditional build-up riff, which eventually crescendos into a beautiful blend of chords that are reminiscent of the trending shoegaze genre.

One of the major selling points of Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is the variety of tempos jam packed within it. Whether it’s an upbeat, almost optimistically charged rhythm spread throughout “Death Rays” or an aggressive, calculated dynamic as heard in “San Pedro”, it truly does a great job of covering every option a post-rock band of this caliber has at its disposal.

As with a lot of bands that spawn from this genre, there are however certain points where the disc seems to drag on for just a little longer than necessary, leaving the listener with a sense that this is nothing more than background music. You don’t exactly feel captivated by certain songs, despite Mogwai’s unique efforts to do so.

All in all, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is the type of album that may in fact alienate some of the long-time members of the Mogwai fan-base. But at the end of the day, you definitely get the sense that they are putting out the best possible record that they were capable of. While this may not be ranked at the top of their discography any time soon, there are plenty of positive traits that make checking out this album justifiable.

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