Come On Die Young - Mogwai

...7) may nothing but happiness come through your door (8:29)
This track is driven by the slow heavy drum beat, with a light guitar riff over the top, and some synths. Towards the end a sample "please hold the line" comes in repeated in the background.

8) oh! how the dogs stack up (2:03)
A sad piano theme, with some sort of bells accompanying, and some odd squeaky sounds. Short and sweet.

9) ex-cowboy ...
...repeated over and over, building up to white noise... twice in the course of the track.

10) chocky (9:23)
Starts off with a hopeful piano theme, which dies away, and then another, lilting 6/8, piano theme comes in, with drums accompanying, and shimmering guitar chords in the background. Ends in industrial noise.

11) christmas steps (10:39)
The best track on the album, and its climax. Starting out quietly ... more

"What's this meant to be- some kind of funeral?" - an unimpressed bystander at mogwai's Sunday night headlining slot on the other stage at glastonbury '99. I, on the other hand, was sufficiently impressed to go and buy their then latest album, cheerily titled 'come on die young', now one of my favourite albums.

Mogwai (from Glasgow) are basically a guitar band with the vocals removed. Some of their 'songs' do have vocals, but they're a small minority. Whereas with most bands, the focus is the singing, with mogwai, as there is none, the instruments themselves provide this. Most of the songs comprise a simple riff repeated over and over, with small variations, and large variations in dynamic. The results are usually dark and atmospheric, and somehow extremely engaging. A great example is the last track of their first album (Young Team), 'Mogwai fear Satan', which is somehow engaging throughout despite consisting of only one three-chord riff and lasting fifteen minutes...

"come on die young" is mogwai's second album, released in 1999. I'll try to give some sort of taste of it:

1) punk rock: (2:08)
A quiet track, using an old interview with Iggy Pop talking about punk rock "a word used by dilletantes about music that takes up the energy and the time and the minds of the young men who give what they have to it, who give everything they have to it" in the foreground. Underneath, a simple, sad, eerie guitar tune is repeated over and over. It's reflective and hauntingly atmospheric, and the guitar slightly out of tune adds to this effect. "What sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise...is in fact, the brilliant music of a genius".

2) cody (6:33)
The 'title track' is the only one on the album with vocals, sung whispered over slow echoing guitar chords and sliding keyboard(?) notes. It's slow, reflective and dark, simultaneously depressive and uplifting. With it's title, you might expect something nihilistic and angry, but in fact it's more the opposite, gentle "...as I drive alone at night, I see the streetlights as fairgrounds..."

3) helps both ways (4:53)
A commentary from an American Football game continues throughout the song in the background. The riff is slow and bass-heavy, with very heavy bass drums. Again very dark, and oppressive.

4) year 200 non-compliant cardia (3:25)
A tune picked out over shimmering guitars and heavy bass, with the same riff repeated over and over again, with some unexpected changes. There are some extremely cool disharmonic chords and chord changes, and the tension builds up and up, dissipates, then builds up again before being sustained for longer and longer before dissipating again.

5) kappa (4:52)
Similar in sound to the previous track, slow with light guitar chords over heavy drumming and bass line. Again some really cool chords.

6) waltz for aidan (3:44)
The only track on the album predominantly in a major key! A slow lilting 6/8 with delicate guitar chords, and a pleasant tune picked out on the guitar. It's almost like a lullaby.

7) may nothing but happiness come through your door (8:29)
This track is driven by the slow heavy drum beat, with a light guitar riff over the top, and some synths. Towards the end a sample "please hold the line" comes in repeated in the background.

8) oh! how the dogs stack up (2:03)
A sad piano theme, with some sort of bells accompanying, and some odd squeaky sounds. Short and sweet.

9) ex-cowboy (9:09)
A simple slow guitar theme repeated over and over, building up to white noise... twice in the course of the track.

10) chocky (9:23)
Starts off with a hopeful piano theme, which dies away, and then another, lilting 6/8, piano theme comes in, with drums accompanying, and shimmering guitar chords in the background. Ends in industrial noise.

11) christmas steps (10:39)
The best track on the album, and its climax. Starting out quietly with a simple slow guitar theme, repeated over and over, with different variations coming in, leads into a heavy bass throb, which bursts into a faster staccato guitar riff, with the drums coming in as well, which erupts into a much louder heavier version of the same thing, with screaming guitars over the top. This then reverts to the staccato riff, and then there's a gradual calmdown, with a slow guitar theme getting quieter and slower and dying away. Wow- its immense!

12) punk rock/puff daddy/ANTICHRIST (2:14)
A muted trumpet theme repeats over, slow and quiet, and underneath is crowd noise and the guitar theme from track one, finishing up the album in the way it started.

Not only are there some great individual tracks on the album, it's masterfully constructed as an album itself, starting slowly, climaxing at track 11, then coming down again, an ending encapsulated with the theme that opened the album. Some of the tracks blend into one another towards the end. The whole thing is bleak, slow, sad and beautiful. It's not something to put on at a party (I dare you!), but something to listen to on your own late at night, or on a night-time car journey. It's an album that I can lie down and listen to while doing nothing else, and it will engage my attention throughout, despite the slow pace and lack of vocals. Turn up the volume ridiculously loud- the bass, although not obvious, reverberates powerfully and will make all your doors and windows shake. The recording is very lo-fi sounding, which gives it quite a lot of character and atmosphere.

It does have a great potential do be depressing. I tend not to find music that others dismiss as 'depressing' (mostly radiohead) depressing, rather beautiful and uplifting, but I would agree that this album could justifiably be called depressing in its unrelenting bleakness. One possible criticism of the album is that there's very little variation, it's all the same sound, but I see that here as a strength- its a single unit, neatly encapsulated, rather than some collection of random songs.

It's my favourite of mogwai's albums, more consistent than Young Team, and I found Rock Action to seem a bit too much like a cheap imitation of an earlier success. It's one of my favourite albums overall.

Obviously, if you want pop, or something thrashy to jump around to, this won't be the record you're looking for. However, in it's own little niche of bleak dark rock, it's masterful.

Thanks,
Simon

P.S. the band's official website: www.mogwai.co.uk

 

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