Mogwai - Every Country's Sun

The Quietus

Confined spaces and sonic onslaughts make for compelling bedfellows. This writer’s favourite Mogwai memory is the maniacal look of glee on Stuart Braithwaite’s face when the band simultaneously stomped on the booster pedals during ‘We’re No Here’, one night at the ICA in 2006. It would only be a slight exaggeration to say the wall of sound that hit the audience at high velocity knocked bodies into the bar next door. Yet in the intervening years, Mogwai have displayed a development in sound and execution that prove their vistas and stealth are every bit as captivating.

And so it proves on Every Country’s Sun. Unlike so many bands that have spent years – or, in this case, decades - in each other’s company, Mogwai actually sound reinvigorated here, pushing at sonic barriers not so much by force as by subtlety and restraint. Which isn’t to suggest the slipping on of comfortable footwear and the lighting of a pipe by a roaring fireplace, but a desire to keep exploring new sounds and possibilities.

Certainly, Mogwai are happy to mix the colours from the wide palette they’re holding. Witness ‘Brain Sweeties’ or album opener ‘Coolverine’, wherein guitars and keyboards don’t just weave in and out of each other, they interchange and swap roles with almost indecent insouciance and palpable sense of aural curiosity. Elsewhere, ‘Party In The Dark’ might well be the sweetest thing they’ve ever recorded. Verging on pop and one of their rare forays into vocal-led music, the meshing of melody and sensitivity is an early highlight.

But just as you think you’ve got the current Mogwai pinned down as a vehicle for contemplation and introspection, the band re-employ those booster pedals with a sonic one-two for the album’s crescendo - ‘Battered At A Scramble’ and ‘Old Poisons’ - before offering a twisted form of respite with the closing track, 'Every Country's Sun'.

This refinement in Mogwai’s modus operandi suits them well. Where once their revolutionary sound startled, their evolutionary execution now beguiles - and keeps them several steps ahead of the pack.

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Drowned In Sound 80

In fact, following their soundtrack work on Atomic and Les Revenants they are perhaps at their most popular they have ever been in this current stage of their careers, so there is a good chance a newer audience will be listening to Every Country's Sun, the band's ninth studio album. Perhaps, this is why we find Mogwai in a fairly reflective mood here, as much of their latest record appears to be looking back at their work as much as going forward. Opening one-two punches 'Coolverine' and 'Party in the Dark' gives a pretty good indication of what is to follow, while also showing off that famous sense of humour, the latter being about as close to a 'pop' song as Mogwai have ever produced.

As mentioned, Mogwai have a very specific sound that they have owned pretty much from the very first time Mogwai Young Team was unleashed upon us. Eighth album, Rave Tapes saw the band go beyond mere flirtation with synths and electronic music, and fully rounded an album around that, their best selling so far. Every Country’s Sun sees a slight back tread on that in terms of overall sound, however, tracks like the ambient ‘aka 47’ use of carpenter-esque synths, similar to S U R V I V E's work on the Stranger Things OST. While perhaps not right for a whole Mogwai album, it's certainly one of the most pleasing and interesting aspects of their ninth record and is almost a shame they don't expand on it much further.

'Don't Believe the Fife' is the main companion to this sound, although there is the nagging feeling many long-term Mogwai fans may feel like "we've been here before" when there are many familiar twists and turns, melodies and movements (here it is 'Cody'). There are a couple of these moments on Every Country's Sun, for instance, late-to-the-party rager 'Old Poisons' is basically 'Batcat' reworked, whereas 'Cross the Road Material' while lovely, is essentially a slower 'How to be a Werewolf'. This isn't necessarily a problem in terms of this current Mogwai record because nothing feels out of place on it, but for those familiar with Mogwai's length back catalogue, it is certainly noticeable.

Perhaps part of this self-reflectiveness is due to the band recording with Dave Fridmann, who produced two of Mogwai's best (and best sounding) records Come on Die Young and Rock Action way back in 1999 and 2001 respectively. As a result, Every Country's Sun sounds pleasingly massive, as any Mogwai album should, as there is something specifically about Fridmann's techniques that just understands the band's heavy hitting style. This is also the first Mogwai album - discounting the Atomic soundtrack - to not feature guitarist John Cummings and while there is no notable absence in terms of song quality without him, it's certainly feasible this painted some of the band's choices here.

Ultimately, however, despite these minor worries, there is just no denying a great Mogwai song, however familiar. '20 Size' is pretty much everything you'd ever expect from the band and yet it is so moving that you can't help but get swept away by it. The slow-burning '1000 Foot Face' broods and ruminates while the album's title track and epic finale is a beautiful piece of music by anyone's standards. In an increasingly worrying time globally, it is comforting to know that such a terrific band as Mogwai can still belt it out.

The Guardian 80

(Rock Action)

Few bands make great music in their third decade together, but Mogwai continues the particularly strong form they’ve been in since 2013’s Les Revenants on their ninth studio album, Every Country’s Sun. It’s built, as ever, on the Scots’ familiar instrumental tropes. Sometimes the album is pensive or disturbing. Elsewhere, it’s hymnal and graceful (Coolverine), or brutal (1,000 Foot Face). It’s not so much as quiet-then-loud as the sound of transcendental near-silence gradually erupting into a sonic nuclear meltdown . However, their signature sound is constantly and slightly evolving, as they curate their canon-like sculptors, for ever chipping away to perfect the smallest detail. Synthesiser rhythms mingle with the trademark guitars. Party in the Dark, the most outright pop song of Mogwai’s career, features rarely heard Stuart Braithwaite vocals: the song blasts a New Order-like bassline through a psychedelic haze to reach a euphoric chorus (“Hungry for a peace of mind …”). As ever, it’s music that seeks to somehow navigate a pathway through life’s eternal chaos.