Is the new Mogwai album any good?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Absolutely. Like a summary of the highlights from their past three albums, synthesized together into a new sort of being.

Short answer: yes

Medium answer: yes, but depending on how much you prefer Ten Rapid, you may not be able to see past this album's resemblance to its predecessors in order to think that it's any good, because there's definitely a resemblance.

Further caveat: I like all their albums. Lots of people seem not to.

No.

If any band sounds like a slow, painful suicide, it's them. Especially on Rock Action.
There was a time when I thought they might be going somewhere. But they seem totally opposed to musical evolution. Or, at least, opposed to making music that's not mindnumbingly dull and predictable.

I asked this very question about a week or so back.

It's crap. Nice cover, though.

Medium Answer Stated With A Strange Glowing From Above:

Oh God yes.

If any band sounds like a slow, painful suicide, it's them.

I haven't got Rock Action yet, but that description might tempt me to.

I have to agree with Nicole - that description really makes me want to buy it!

GOTH ALERT! GOTH ALERT!

More like it wants to MAKE ME COMMIT slow, painful suicide.

Death by ennui.

Still....nice cover art.

Hey, cool! Let's give smarmy answers and not back them up at all!

I love Mogwai, and I think this album is a bit of a change. Still the long, slow builds, but with more intricate, thicker textures, and some nice vocals, too. If you've liked any of their other stuff, you should check 'dis out. But please, people, explain what you mean by 'dull,' 'agonizing,' etc. It's frustrating to read these knee- jerk words and find nothing whatsoever backing them up.

Sorry if that was cranky; I've been up all night writing a term paper.

Okay, I'll bite. I actually posted this thread already last week, so here's what I wrote (which largely explains my opinion on the subject):

"Just picked up the new album from Mogwai, ROCK ACTION. Anyone hear it? My verdict? (like any of you care): ROCK ACTION as a title (despite having the innate coolness of being named after Stooges drummer, Scotty Asheton's nick name) is a woefull misnomer. Mogwai are one of those bands that I honestly *REALLY WANNA LIKE*, but it just never seems to happen. I love what I read about them, I like their austere aesthetic, they're Scottish, but this is the second album of theirs I've shelled out ambitiously for (the first being COME ON DIE YOUNG) and again I'm left largely cold & clammy. Track number five, "You Don't Know Jesus," is suitably "rockin'," but don't come to me saying it's all forward-thinking, cutting-edge, "post-rock," because it's nothing those much maligned-shoegazers in Ride weren't doing ten years ago (and they were tagged with the epithet "retro"). Perhaps I need to be more patient and let it grow on me. Or not."

Anyway, that's what I said last week. Since then, a friend of mine loaned me a copy of an earlier album of theirs, YOUNG TEAM, which I dutifully spun. Personally speaking, I found it much more compelling than ROCK ACTION....a little more meat on the bone.

That better, Clarke?

Ride? Uh, no. And I'm wearing my vintage 1991 Ride tour shirt this very second, and I KNOW WHEREOF I SPEAK. ;-)

Seriously, Alex, I hear more obvious corollaries to the likes of Low and Fuckoff you Posing Canadians! (if you will). Shoegaze? Nah. All I know is that I do *very* much love the album, consider it three for three for them, and that by not simply trying _YT_ or _CODY_ again -- and I find it hard to believe some are claiming that, but that's just me -- they show that they're not a one-trick pony ever more clearly.

So yes, it's great, and I nominate "Sine Wave" and "You Don't Know Jesus" as my two current faves. Can't wait for the tour with Bardo Pond, should be grand.

Upon further reflection, I like the new album a lot. I was a bit worried when I read the pre-release interviews and articles about the band which talked about use of banjos, etc. Not that I have anything against the banjo--I love bluegrass, and I own a banjo myself--but it struck me as going in a direction that took Mogwai away from what I found compelling about earlier material. The new one is a slow grower; first time I heard it it sounded a bit dull around the edges, though it should be noted that the sonic experimentation referred to in the articles I read was pretty minimal, and any acoustic instrumentation seems to have mostly been used for subtle around-the- edges effects more than for any real change in the sound. But now, every time it comes up on random on my Nomad, I can't help but be immersed in it. I also picked up Ten Rapid and plonked it into the jukebox as well, and the sonic difference is not that great to my ears. Not yet, anyhow. It seems solid.

Let me ask this, if anyone is still tuned in: Do you think someone who found CODY very dull might like the new one?

I think it's quite possible - the new one is a lot, let's say... punchier. Much shorter too. You might want to try listening somehow before you buy, though.

How dare you call me a goth! I can see how you came to that conclusion tho - i meant that i like slow in a slint / labradford way. The suicide bit is just incidental