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(Chemikal Underground Records) “’Cause music is bigger than words and wider than pictures,” says Mari Myren on the opening monologue to “Yes! I Am a Long Way from Home,” the first track off Mogwai’s first studio LP Young Team. Over 64-plus minutes, Mogwai creates swirling, building, imploding, and erupting sonic soundscapes that run the emotional gambit from beautiful to devastating. Each note possesses so much raw feeling that the sheer combined weight can only be compared to the force felt at the center of a collapsing star, and the album’s entire composition to that of the resulting super nova.
“R U Still in 2 It”’s melancholic look at a failing relationship may make you question every romance you’ve had in your entire adult life. In it, the album’s lone vocal track, deep feelings of lingering insecurity are hidden under commitment-avoiding excuses. Meanwhile, the glockenspiel driven “Tracy” pervades the mind with the sentiment of something lost that’s slowly disappearing into the distance in front of your eyes. Even within Young Team’s despairing songs, the emotions can run from impending heartbreak to wistfulness.
Mogwai have no qualms about saying what they are thinking, even once printing shirts that say “Blur: Are Shite,” when the two bands co-headlined T in the Park in 1999. They have the audacity to do what they want when they feel like it, and it is no more apparent than on Young Team. On it, the radiant beauty of “Radar Maker” with its shimmering piano follows the ragging storm that is “Katrien” with its nearly impossible to decipher words. Throughout the album, the self-described “serious guitar rock” band continues to show that they can back up every word they say with their compositions.
At over 16 minutes, the album’s final track “Mogwai Fear Satan” stands as its magnum opus. With multiple crescendos and diminuendos the song rages with the force of creation, building worlds from exploding stars and then quelling the ferocity with a sinfully, soothing flute melody. The song’s title stems from Dominic Aitchison’s fear of the devil, but after listening it is clear that Mogwai are masters of their own universe.
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Young Team evokes emotion. Through its expanding and shrinking soundscapes, the album is able to explore much of the post-rock sphere, reaching the excitement of creation and falling to the anxiety of fear. Each piece is poised and beautifully composed while raging from within. “If someone said that Mogwai are the stars, I would not object/If the stars had the sound, it would sound like this/The punishment for these solemn words can be hard/Can blood boil like this at the sound of a noisy tape that I’ve heard.”
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