Mogwai-As the Love Continues album review.

 

Mogwai-As the Love Continues album review.

FFO: Fuzzy, grandiose epic post-rock splendour.

 

Ten albums in and you think the formula would be diluted. But on this cracking release, Mogwai delivers classic trademarks of their greatest albums and still some twists and turns to mix it up.

 

There are beautiful ambient like textures on Pat Stains that just delight you with a perfect balance of build-up and calm, the briskly sensational guitar journeyman tune that is Supposedly, We Were Nightmares and the closer It's What I Want To Do, Mum that is so grim and dynamic in its deep plodding pace. To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth is incredible in the manner that it fools you into thinking this is a nice, but typical Mogwai opening track but it provides brilliant build-up and gives you a taste of how intelligent this band is in both songwriting and artistic skill. They can fit multiples ideas in one song and the layers are so canny in the way they draw in and mystify the listener. Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever is easily one of the album's highlights. It is equally charming with its shoegaze guitar wizardry and fuzzy feedback innovations. Absolute classic Mogwai in every way. Dry Fantasy and Drive The Nail build on this type of solid foundation the band is known for and whilst it's all familiar as hell, it's utterly captivating. Ritchie Sacramento, Ceiling Granny and Fuck Off Money are all stunning highlights of the album; each achieving the lofty heights of canny and astute placement of melody, tempo and instrument choice. We have constantly been overwhelmed by the way they carefully construct and hook you in with 99% of their albums and tracks like these paints this picture clearly. Midnight Flit warmed my heart with its melodramatic use of strings and off-kilter arrangements. Mogwai are at times like an underground movie soundtrack, they make you melt into the almost drone-like atmosphere, but then they will not only alternate between quiet and loud, but add significant experimentation around the boundaries of this genre. This separates them from most of their peers and makes their albums classics, not bookends to a long career. 

This continues the fantastic form of this band and this album is unquestionably essential.

Listen and buy this here:

https://mogwai.bandcamp.com/album/as-the-love-continues

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWjzlJEmmxM



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