After the triumph of scoring an unlikely pandemic UK No 1 album with As the Love Continues, things quickly turned very difficult for Glasgow four-piece Mogwai, with the daughter of multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns taken seriously ill. Thankfully, she is “going to be fine”, but the title of their 11th album (it’s a Glaswegian term for hell) gives an indication of how troubled its gestation was.
Grammy-winner John Congleton (St Vincent, John Grant, Sleater-Kinney) produces for the first time, but this doesn’t represent any sort of radical departure. For the most part, Mogwai now soothe where once they roared (save on the appropriately named Lion Rumpus), gentle repeated motifs unhurriedly opening out into more expansive shapes, as on the sublime Pale Vegan Hip Pain or the constantly questing Hammer Room. Meanwhile, the vocoder-heavy Fanzine Made of Flesh comes across like a more purposeful Sophtware Slump-era Grandaddy, and If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others is a masterclass in artfully deployed dynamics. Thirty years into their career, Mogwai remain as absorbing as ever, their fire undimmed.
