Mogwai, Come on Die Young (Matador) 9-
Showing the effects of Tortoise's spreading influence, Scotland's Mogwai came out with a promisingly interesting instrumental rock album, Young Team in 1997. Have they fulfilled that promise? Not if you expected anything new. But they do a good job at expanding their palate of influences and wrapping them up in a shiny new package for late newcomers. The albums starts with an amusing speech by Iggy Pop on how "punk rock" is being exploited as a façade by dilettantes. "Cody" features layered vocals reminiscent of Mercury Rev; "Helps Both Ways" employs background pratter of a football game on television and effectively conveys a vivid feeling of loneliness with the help of slow, spare drum beats and melancholy strings that remind me of the expressiveness of Dirty Three or Godspeed You Black Emperor. "Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cordia" boasts keyboard squealches amidst a cymbal-heavy cacophony that recalls early Jessamine. Overall the music meanders over pools of emotion, occasionally dipping a toe in. Eventually you just wish they would at least once make a big 'ol rock 'n' roll splash, climb into a noisy speedboat and leave it all behind. The nine-plus minute "Chucky" does eventually turn up the jet engines, but it never takes off.
