Mr. Beast

Today's Music that Jason Finally Brought in From the Car is Mogwai's Mr. Beast. This album was released in 2006, I think, and I'm not sure why I decided to pick it up, but I did actually buy the CD.

Anyway, this album is one I've enjoyed quite a bit. Some state that this is the strongest Mogwai album, and I don't know that I completely agree (I think I'm still partial to Happy Songs For Happy People), it's still very good. It's very much a Mogwai (i.e. instrumental post-rock, though the two shouldn't be taken as synonyms) album, but it is somewhat more engaging than previous works. It also incorporates a piano on a few songs, and the piano is magnificent. These tracks ("Auto Rock", "Friend of the Night") are well plotted and eminently listenable, and even kind of pretty (for lack of a better word).

Parentheses aside, this album still has plenty of bite and brood to it. Anyone dismissing Mr. Beast after hearing the piano intro to the album clearly didn't stick around long enough for the drums, which sometimes rage, sometimes thunder, but never relax. This album doesn't have to be listened to at 11 to be enjoyed, but there are plenty of abrasive rock moments. The guitar is still king here, and its feedback has a little to say as well.

This is the type of album that has so many good tracks that picking favorites seems unfair. The opener, "Auto Rock", has a good sense of the dramatic and really sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Friend of the Night" is gorgeous, "Folk Death 95" and "Glasgow Mega Snake" feel like having a firm, almost abusive ear massage. Even the more minimal tracks like "I Chose Horses" stand alone well but work best in contrast to the more hard-edged songs. The album closer, "We're No Here", is a bruising bookend to "Auto Rock", a slow burn that itches right until the disc stops spinning.

In Short: a very good album, worth a listen if you can handle music that you can't really bounce to. Possibly Mogwai's best work, but certainly worth a damn even if it is not.

In Other News:
It's winter again and I am surly because of it.

Last night I had a strange dream, about chasing someone up flights and flights of a parking ramp. At the top I got into an elevator that kept accelerating, through ascent and descent, and would not stop.

I need to bake something this weekend.