Mogwai
Mr. Beast
Release Date: Mar 7, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Matador / PIAS
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Album Review: Mr. Beast by Mogwai
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Possibly the most accessible yet sophisticated album Mogwai has released, Mr. Beast strips away most of the electronic embellishment of their recent work in favor of a back-to-basics sound that returns to and expands on the approach they pioneered on Young Team. Mr. Beast is also a surprisingly spontaneous-sounding album -- in the best possible sense, its freshness makes it feel like a recorded practice session and also helps give relatively delicate pieces like "Team Handed" the same amount of impact that heavy, searing tracks like the closer, "We're No Here," have.
Opinion: Poor
Like anyone else whose ears left the 1990s, I was surprised to discover Mogwai chiselling away at the coalface in 2006. Running with Slint’s instrumental quiet-loud binary and reducing any of that group’s sensitivity to a cluster of theatrical rock gestures, Mogwai always sounded ball-less. They were/are also one of the groups most responsible for reducing post-rock’s deconstructive questing spirit to a mathematical equation that simplistically paralleled crushing volume with male pain.