Don't be fooled by Mogwai's latest, metal-evoking album title, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will: after all, this is the same group that brought us an album called Happy Songs For Happy People. Misleading titles aside, Mogwai's formula for building dynamic, layered instrumental anthems has hardly changed over the course of the Scottish quintet's 13-year career. Nor has their ability to make consistently original, if not amazing, albums.
Like Mogwai's last few efforts, Hardcore suffers from a real lack of continuity, sounding like a grab bag of musical ideas thrown together in random order. That said, it's a testament to Mogwai's craftsmanship and musical ingenuity that Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is full of enough great moments to be a thoroughly enjoyable album.
On the opening track ""White Noise"" Mogwai build echoed guitar harmonics and walls of electronic feedback toward a raging climax of crashing cymbals and guitar squelches, all the while keeping an accessible melody intact. A prototype for the guitar-driven melodic formula that Mogwai's post-rock contemporaries, Explosions in the Sky, have rode to widespread praise, ""White Noise"" sets expectations high for the rest of the album.
Unfortunately, the following track ""Mexican Grand Prix"" kills that momentum entirely, with ill-conceived voice modulations, electronic bleeps and a dancey bass line. Sounding like a mix between a video game soundtrack and a Fujiya & Miyagi groove, ""Mexican Grand Prix"" is symptomatic of a band that takes too much liberty with its musical arsenal. While ""Mexican Grand Prix"" offers an interesting deviation from Mogwai's normal sound, it just doesn't fit.
By the time ""Rano Pano's"" gritty guitars kick in, we're not sure what to think. Here, a twenty-second guitar riff is repeated 15 times while thick harmonic layers crescendo on top of it. It seems Mogwai is satisfied to sit on a riff for five minutes, but unwilling to make an album with a real sense of cohesiveness.
""Letters to the Metro"" is probably the album's most approachable song, with slide guitars and pattering cymbals providing the backdrop to a picturesque piano melody. Nothing hardcore here, just a sweeping track that seems destined for a movie soundtrack.
""Death Rays"" and ""How To Be A Werewolf"" are both dynamic, atmospheric and, of course, earsplitting 6-minute spectacles that evoke Mogwai's earliest gems. This may be due, in part, to the word of producer Paul Savage, behind the boards with Mogwai for the first time since their debut album, 1997's Young Team.
Aside from ""George Square Thatcher Death Party""—a computerized iteration of the aforementioned ""Mexican Grand Prix""—the second half of the album does maintain some fluidity. ""How To Be A Werewolf,"" ""Too Raging To Cheers"" and ""You're Lionel Richie"" start with modest, isolated instruments that climb to anarchical guitar distortion and feedback.
The seventh album in an already illustrious career, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will isn't likely to rock the surface of the instrumental rock genre like their first one did. But 13 years later, Mogwai sounds as relevant as ever—and a recent signing with Sub Pop suggests they're not going anywhere, either. In other words: Mogwai will never die.
But you will.
