You didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise that the only way to survive the Britpop era was to ignore or leave it as soon as possible: Blur took the latter approach, whilst the likes of Radiohead and the Super Furry Animals did a bit of both. Having released their debut album Young Team at the movement’s peak Mogwai however were a law to themselves.
They remain so, but 2025 marks their thirtieth anniversary as a band and if the Glaswegian quartet have undertaken their own form of mellowing during the passing years, their lockdown number one As the Love Continues confirmed that time and taste has shifted towards rather than away from them.
If that was a welcome surprise what followed afterwards for the band was not, but regrouping with producer John Congleton they’ve created on The Bad Fire a typically compromise free but reinvigorated version of themselves. That’s not to say that there isn’t familarly loud (Hi Chaos) or quiet (Pale Vegan Hip Pain) or both (If You Think This World Is Bad You Should See Some Of The Others), but the highlights are the drunge drench MBV-isms of 18 Volcanoes and – going back decades – the vocoder toting thrills of Fanzine Made Flesh.
It seems them, you and the brain surgeons were right.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
1 Comment
Comments are closed.