An utterly enthralling 11th studio effort from these Glaswegian post rock stalwarts.
There’s something quite remarkable about Mogwai’s success over the past three decades. The post-rock pioneers, known for their moody yet hopeful soundscapes and unconventional song structures, have smashed through any perceived ceiling of limitation. We’re talking ten stellar studio albums, a host of television and film scores - from Apple TV’s Black Bird (2022) to Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006) - and selling out shows across the globe in the process. In February 2021, things got even more surreal for the Glasgow band when As The Love Continues gave them a UK album chart number one and an unexpected crowning career achievement. Not bad going for an outfit without a recognised singer or, indeed, a signature tune!
Four years on and The Bad Fire is the Glasgow band’s eleventh studio album. Recorded in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, at Chem19 studios with Grammy-Award winning producer John Congleton, their latest keeps things on brand by offering another highly emotive masterclass of (mainly) instrumental post rock.
Like so many Mogwai albums, the name itself is worthy of illumination. You see Mogwai have always had a thing for unorthodox titles - 1997 debut Mogwai Young Team was an ironic ode to the teenage gang scene of their Glasgow hometown. And, this time round, The Bad Fire sticks out for being a Scottish colloquialism for hell; though a phrase usually used in a banterous context (as those who’ve spent time in Glasgow will testify, the saying often follows an inappropriate joke falling flat: “oh you’re going to the bad fire for that!”). That might make you think the run up to the record was all fun and games, right? Not quite. The record draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments for the band, including the various medical problems suffered by keyboardist Barry Burns’ daughter who, by all purposes, is lucky to still be alive.
Despite the troubling background to the record, Mogwai make light in the darkest of situations. A record of intimately crafted soundscapes with a familiar mix of songs; uplifting, beautiful and moving to their very core. Opener ‘God Gets You Back’ is a frenetic curtain-raiser, featuring hypnotic synth riffs, muffled vocals (the indiscernible lyrics themselves written by Burns’ abovementioned seven-year-old daughter) and a cinematic journey that could very well soundtrack a late ‘70s/early ‘80s John Carpenter film. Better is to come on second track ‘Hi Chaos’ with its quiet sense of unease that explodes skywards through ferocious guitars, while ‘What Kind Of Mix Is This?’ begins on haunting piano lines before moving onto a riff monstrous and earwormy.
The album’s mid-section is where Mogwai truly peak. ‘Pale Vegan Hip Pain’ centres on another gorgeous guitar riff and builds a soundscape both intimate and desolate. Likewise, ‘If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others’ is an ominous 7-minute epic, the band allowing tension to gradually explode into a smorgasbord of distorted guitars and crashing percussion before plummeting us back to earth again. The albums best track by some distance it must be said.
If we’re being in any way critical, you could argue that the rare tracks that do feature vocals to be amongst the less gripping here. Perhaps more a reflection on the beauty of the expansive instrumental tracks itself, the vocalised ones just don’t stand up in comparison. This can be said especially of synth-rock fourth track ‘Fanzine Made Of Flesh’: still a solid enough track by anyone else's standards, but the detached vocoder-laced vocals are icy and disengaging, contrasting to the intimate warmth heard elsewhere.
Despite this slight criticism, the album still impresses to the bitter end. The squeals of distorted electric guitar and expensive wall of sound on ‘Lion Rumpus’ make it the album’s most explosive track and act as the storm before the calm of blissful closer ‘Fact Boy’.
The Bad Fire might not cure your January blues entirely but it’ll at least provide a glimmer of hope to get you through the bleakest of months. All in all, an utterly enthralling 11th studio effort from these post rock stalwarts.
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