After 11 years of making music with five studio albums under their belt, Scottish band Mogwai released their sixth album, The Hawk Is Howling, on Sept. 22 to mixed reviews.
The instrumental post-rock group has made a name for themselves in the underground music world in the past, with triumph albums like 1997’s Mogwai Young Team and 2001’s Rock Action.
I myself, have been so moved by the poetic resonance of their instruments that I’ve dialed up friends and deafeningly yelled ‘listen to Mogwai, effective immediately’ into the phone. In spite of all this, after hearing the band’s latest effort, I found myself “howling” for change.
Now let’s not get carried away. This is not to say that the entire album was a waste. It’s not the soundtrack to Glitter or Jesse Camp’s Jesse And The 8th Street Kidz. Do you remember him? I remember him. No, what The Hawk Is Howling presents to listeners is far from awful but is most certainly not fireworks on the fourth of July. On a scale of one to ten, I’d give
it beige.
From the get go, Mogwai sets a mediocre pace with the album’s first track, “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead.” Named after the late great lead singer of The Doors, the song softly begins as a piano ballad, cloaked with despondence and melancholy, yet after the crescendo, Mogwai takes you nowhere. It leads up to a big nothing.
Maybe that was intentional, maybe they were trying to say something about Jim Morrison, or maybe they weren’t. Regardless, it fails to intrigue which, whether a subdued blues hymn or a vividly energetic melody, the first track should always achieve.
“Batcat,” is an epically hollow track that only the most devoted Dream Theater fan could fall for. Heavy on the feedback and metal-influenced guitar riffs, “Batcat” is one of those tracks that could be the theme song to the film Beowulf. Either that or Mortal Kombat. You decide. On the other hand, “Danphe and The Brain” is a disarmingly pleasing track; along with its sister track “Local Authority.”
“I Love You, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School,” is a chilling whisper; even the title of the song made me apprehensive but unfortunately, it’s also nothing to
shout about.
Ultimately, out of the ten songs, there were just two songs that I could consider listening to again. Although I try to give astonishing bands the benefit of the doubt, I feel that I’ve been more than
fair in my assessment of this particular album.
In the words of Sick Boy from Trainspotting when discussing mediocre music, “In your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it’s actually
just shite.”
Granted, Mogwai has produced so many spell bounding tracks in their past that this albums flaws are easily overlooked.
Some bands naturally have a charismatic style that carries them no matter what bumps in the road they hit and Mogwai wears it like a 13-year-old girl sporting a Hannah Montana shirt.