Mogwai: The Hawk is Howling

The band

Everyone's favorite Scottish prog-rock band, Mogwai, have recently released what marks the group's sixth full-length album, The Hawk is Howling. It feels strange to think that it's already been eleven years since the band released their first album Young Team in 1997—a testament of time that proves Mogwai are now among the respected, record-selling, attention-getting, chart-topping ranks.

Although the nature of Mogwai's music does its best to defy attribution and remain eclectic, with each album their intrinsic style and songwriting patterns become increasingly apparent, tighter, and more meticulously executed. One little surprise with The Hawk is Howling, however, is that there are no monologue or conversational sound bites like we heard in "Tracy" off of Young Team and "Punk Rock" off of Come On Die Young as well as no sung vocals like we heard in "Hunted By a Freak" off of Happy Songs for Happy People—this one is entirely instrumental. Leaving it to the instrumentals, I think, was a good move. When Mogwai stretched their musical tentacles on some of those earlier albums, the results would sometimes seem as if they were blindly reaching for any source they thought might "complete" the song (those spoken bites, for example)—as if they were trying to fill the awkward gaps.

The Hawk is Howling presents a stronger, more confident band, and while some of those gaps have been filled with repetition that feels aimless at times, Mogwai is in better form today than in 1997, and I expect that trend to continue.

The music

The album starts with a slow, ambiguous, solo piano part that could lead the album in virtually any direction. It's rather exciting, and I've half a mind to think that Mogwai have done it intentionally…a hook and reel that they have complete control over. They can pull you in a steadfast straight line, or they can let you bob around in the water for a bit—toy with you. The title of the first track may be just as ambiguous as the composition: "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead." It could be a serious tribute just as well as it could be an effort to make light of the attention and controversy that Morrison's death received. From there, the song gets heavier, dramatic, depressed, and maybe even a bit romantic—but never definitive in intention.

"Batcat," the album's second track is a loud, dissonant, metal-ish, thrasher-in-slo-mo piece—the kind of track that earns them comparisons with Pelican and Explosions in the Sky. This song, I'm willing to bet, could be played for and embraced by any hardcore scene enthusiasts, and reactions to learning that the track is, in fact, by Mogwai, would almost assuredly raise a few eyebrows. Somehow, Mogwai seem to have been lumped into a category of Radiohead and Sigur Rós fans over the years, and thus, they are considered soft by association. This is clearly not so. "Batcat" expands classification for Mogwai, as well as widens expectations and possibilities for the group's future.

Danphe and the Brain boasts a mad scientist brew of baritone electric guitars, chimes, and some ghastly percussion lurking in the shadows of stereo pans, wispy pedal effects, and subtle computer tones.

Just based on descriptions of these first three tracks, you can get a feel for the record's shiftiness. It continues on like that for the duration of the tracks, as well—consistent in its inconsistency. Generally, what really turns me on to a record is when it feels like a record—a work of art as a whole. The Hawk is Howling is not that kind of album. Congruency is tossed out the window and an isolated track by track separation is established between songs. However, this album is good, and it's good in a non-traditional sense, as far as rock albums go. The Hawk is Howling reminds me a bit more of a ballet or an opera score (with non-classical instrumentation, of course). It's mood-eliciting instrumental music that changes vastly from beginning to end. However, instead of a 30-piece string section, Mogwai have computers and Virtual Instruments (software). This comparison is a little less surprising if taking into account Mogwai's previous film-scoring experience (Zidane: A 21^st Century Portrait) and the dozens of times their music has been used in various films, television shows, video games, etc.

The "needs improvement" section of this album is found in its mostly mushy middle and rear end (a common problem with aging, I'm told). "Kings Meadow," track 6, and "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School," track 7, offer much flashier, thought-provoking titles than the songs are able to back up. There are parts where the music drags to the point of monotony and fails to hold any sort of attention to even the most fixated listeners. The anticlimactic end of "The Precipice" might be the best example of this. These parts, I think, would be far more appreciated if they were set to some motion picture or had some sort of visual or other point of interest to drive the theme along. The music itself, at its mushiest, will leave you lost and having forgotten that you'd been listening to music at all. A weak spot, I believe, that Mogwai will continue to grow at conquering in the future.

Head on over to Mogwai's Myspace page to preview streaming tracks of The Hawk is Howling in its entirety, or visit their official website to purchase the album in tangible form. If you happen to reside in Somewheresville, Europe, you might even get to see the band perform in the next couple of months.