How odd it must be, playing in Mogwai: You record
a scrappy-yet-seminal debut (1997's post-rock standard-bearer Young Team), decide in hindsight
that it's actually the worst thing you've done, and yet 11 years on, there your
fans are, demanding the raw explosiveness of those salad days, when you've long
since graduated to haute cuisine. Mogwai has done some exploding in the
interim: From 1999's Come On Die Young to 2006's Mr. Beast (which the band considers
the actual
best thing they've ever done), Mogwai's strongest songs have always capitalized
on the quiet/loud, heavy/heavier theatrics of the band's live show. In the
studio, however, the balance has shifted significantly since Young Team: Guitar-saturated peaks
and valleys have eroded into arty electronic plateaus, and those noisy,
distended epics have shrunk into ill-fitting three-minute constraints.
On paper, then, The Hawk Is Howling should be the balm that
fans have been seeking. Featuring some of the longest tracks since 2001's Rock
Action,
the record reunites Mogwai with Young Team producer Andy Miller, and—at least
in its opening one-two punch ("I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" and the grinding,
fuzz-drenched "Batcat")—rediscovers the intense emotional-visceral
buildup that's endeared Mogwai to metalheads and indie rockers alike. After
that, though, it's a different story. Beyond a few grand crescendos ("I Love
You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" and "The Precipice"), Hawk wades through the
electronic textures and the roiling, tentative mood pieces that make Mogwai's
weaker tunes logical (if not ideal) soundtrack fodder. The result,
unfortunately, is a lot of running in place, when at this point it'd be far
more daring to aim skyward.