Mogwai – As The Love Continues – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Mogwai have carved out a sort of twin career for themselves: soundtrack work and their extensive catalogue of non-soundtrack albums.  Their soundtrack work is every bit as strong as their main albums with last year’s ZeroZeroZero raising levels of expectation for this album.

It opens with To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth.  Here, twinkling piano and swirling keyboards combine before rough, fuzzy guitars blast away for a few minutes.  It’s a fairly typical Mogwai track.  Less typical is what follows.  Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever has some jarring, buffed R&B beats before developing into a propulsive track, one of the better songs here.  It’s followed by Dry Fantasy, a more soothing, soulsearching track.  Occasionally Mogwai like to throw in a poppy track, and this time around Stuart Braithwaite takes the lead vocal on Ritchie Sacramento.  Big, uplifting chord changes are all over this one as it races along.  It’s not the only pop moment here, penultimate track  Supposedly, We Were Nightmares has a bright snappy beat and is fairly upbeat (for them).

Elsewhere?  Guitars are to the fore on the gloriously downcast Drive the Nail, while they also pull off a shoegaze-style track Ceiling Granny which has brawny, gauzy guitars and a stomping beat.  If you prefer your Mogwai with added keyboards, Fuck Off Money will fit the bill with its heavily treated voices and the soaring Midnight Flit skirts close to musical euphoria.  Pat Stains is a really immersive track, beginning somewhat abashed and introspective, before going full-on epic midway through.  The traditional epic Mogwai closer is here in the shape of It’s What I Want To Do, Mum.  This one doesn’t disappoint, providing a very downbeat ending to the album.

It’s easy to use words like ‘consistent’ as faint praise when describing Mogwai.  Let’s just say they are bloody good at what they do and they never disappoint.

Track List:
1. To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth
2. Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever
3. Dry Fantasy
4. Ritchie Sacramento
5. Drive The Nail
6. Fuck Off Money
7. Ceiling Granny
8. Midnight Flit
9. Pat Stains
10. Supposedly, We Were Nightmares
11. It’s What I Want To Do, Mum

Dry Fantasy