LISTED: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009)
*As the year 2010 is about to draw its curtain close, it is the time of the year (of any year) for many music sites and blogs to come up with a top list of albums of the year. Yes indeed the year 2010 has seen many interesting releases worthy of at least a top 20 list. But here at The Genuine Mind Zine we decided to do things a bit different and take a look at some of the best (of the best) releases throughout the last decade. This may not be the most comprehensive list around, lack of hip hop records for one, but all the albums listed here are indeed the most precious of last decade's precious gems.
7. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling (2008)
Perhaps putting a picture of a majestic-looking eagle on the album cover has paid off handsomely for Mogwai for this is the first time ever that this Scottish band sounded properly huge and purposefully dramatic in a record. When they first started out in 1995, followed by the release of their critically-acclaimed debut Young Team in 1997, the basic template for their song structure has pretty much remain unchanged ever since - lots of interweaving guitar interplay between two or three guitars, occasional outburst of distorted noise and tortured screaming feedback, (mostly) languid pace with a long drawn-out introduction part, and when they felt like it, some singing part thrown in as well for good measure. They are by all account a guitar band; meaning the focus of their songs is on the guitar. It's where they create the mesmerizing atmospherics and mood for their song.
Despite of the heaps of praises given by the media on their debut, I somehow have always felt that the album still greatly lacks in something that ultimately does not warrant its current status as a monumental record. For one, there is this repetition of leaving a vast expanse of nothingness in between all of the songs as if they're all being sucked out into vacuum. As a result, the whole record felt weak and somehow disjointed because there is nothing in between to relate all of the songs together to make it as one single and coherent package. And by repeating the same song structure of quiet-loud-louder over and over again is ultimately an exercise in futility because it doesn't serve any purpose in creating the supposed atmosphere of a cosmic post rock pomp and circumstance.
The band's second and third effort, disappointingly, is no better either with Come On Die Young being a thoroughly insipid and uninspiring fare, very rarely exciting the listener into what was supposed to be a showcase of a band with a stellar soundscape. 2001's Rock Action, though a still-born, whatnot with the band still clearly in the process of finding a solid ground, did warmed up the listener over the things to come with a more focused songwriting. It was to be in 2006 though where Mogwai finally found their true muse and is set to flex their muscle and show that when they are capable of being spectacular, then they are really earth-shattering spectacular. They are still the same calculative, slow-building, guitar-focused band that fans used to know back in 1997 but once they broke out the whip (in "Glasgow Mega-Snake"), then all Hell breaks lose: they have finally learned how to kick someone in the bottom.
Then two years later, the self-realization hits home for good and the result is The Hawk is Howling. It is almost indicative and suggestive of the cover art - this is the album where this band of little-known space explorer is finally ready to spread their wings and soar high, as majestic as the handsome eagle fronting the record. They are no longer found circling the same drain, not able to branch out for their own good. They are no longer that guitar-centered, guitar-driven band obsessed with structures while abandoning the much more important and much more rewarding aspect of atmosphere. You can hear it almost every time in every track that the band is about to explode in a wall of white noise, thanking their hordes of rabid listeners who have been listening to them very patiently all this while, waiting when would be the moment when they are finally ready to break out of the choking habit of recycling structure. While again, the whole pace to the album is still painfully slow when the previous album was a lot quicker, you can't fault them for being themselves. They might be snobs for all that I care - but very rarely that a snob can create mesmerizing pieces of rock music and be interesting.
*As the year 2010 is about to draw its curtain close, it is the time of the year (of any year) for many music sites and blogs to come up with a top list of albums of the year. Yes indeed the year 2010 has seen many interesting releases worthy of at least a top 20 list. But here at The Genuine Mind Zine we decided to do things a bit different and take a look at some of the best (of the best) releases throughout the last decade. This may not be the most comprehensive list around, lack of hip hop records for one, but all the albums listed here are indeed the most precious of last decade's precious gems.
7. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling (2008)
Perhaps putting a picture of a majestic-looking eagle on the album cover has paid off handsomely for Mogwai for this is the first time ever that this Scottish band sounded properly huge and purposefully dramatic in a record. When they first started out in 1995, followed by the release of their critically-acclaimed debut Young Team in 1997, the basic template for their song structure has pretty much remain unchanged ever since - lots of interweaving guitar interplay between two or three guitars, occasional outburst of distorted noise and tortured screaming feedback, (mostly) languid pace with a long drawn-out introduction part, and when they felt like it, some singing part thrown in as well for good measure. They are by all account a guitar band; meaning the focus of their songs is on the guitar. It's where they create the mesmerizing atmospherics and mood for their song.
Despite of the heaps of praises given by the media on their debut, I somehow have always felt that the album still greatly lacks in something that ultimately does not warrant its current status as a monumental record. For one, there is this repetition of leaving a vast expanse of nothingness in between all of the songs as if they're all being sucked out into vacuum. As a result, the whole record felt weak and somehow disjointed because there is nothing in between to relate all of the songs together to make it as one single and coherent package. And by repeating the same song structure of quiet-loud-louder over and over again is ultimately an exercise in futility because it doesn't serve any purpose in creating the supposed atmosphere of a cosmic post rock pomp and circumstance.
The band's second and third effort, disappointingly, is no better either with Come On Die Young being a thoroughly insipid and uninspiring fare, very rarely exciting the listener into what was supposed to be a showcase of a band with a stellar soundscape. 2001's Rock Action, though a still-born, whatnot with the band still clearly in the process of finding a solid ground, did warmed up the listener over the things to come with a more focused songwriting. It was to be in 2006 though where Mogwai finally found their true muse and is set to flex their muscle and show that when they are capable of being spectacular, then they are really earth-shattering spectacular. They are still the same calculative, slow-building, guitar-focused band that fans used to know back in 1997 but once they broke out the whip (in "Glasgow Mega-Snake"), then all Hell breaks lose: they have finally learned how to kick someone in the bottom.
Then two years later, the self-realization hits home for good and the result is The Hawk is Howling. It is almost indicative and suggestive of the cover art - this is the album where this band of little-known space explorer is finally ready to spread their wings and soar high, as majestic as the handsome eagle fronting the record. They are no longer found circling the same drain, not able to branch out for their own good. They are no longer that guitar-centered, guitar-driven band obsessed with structures while abandoning the much more important and much more rewarding aspect of atmosphere. You can hear it almost every time in every track that the band is about to explode in a wall of white noise, thanking their hordes of rabid listeners who have been listening to them very patiently all this while, waiting when would be the moment when they are finally ready to break out of the choking habit of recycling structure. While again, the whole pace to the album is still painfully slow when the previous album was a lot quicker, you can't fault them for being themselves. They might be snobs for all that I care - but very rarely that a snob can create mesmerizing pieces of rock music and be interesting.
Labels: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009), mogwai
posted by Hafeez at 6:04 AM
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