Mogwai - Rock Action
(Matador)

Mogwai's Rock Action is an attempt to morph their sound into something more like Radiohead's recent work. It's no wonder, then, that the Rock Action ends up sounding like a working man's version of Sigur Ròs. The Rock Action ends up being anything but rock as the band adds wholesale amounts of orchestral flourishes and uses vocals in more than half the songs, some sort of musical neighborhood beautification project to try to make them more like a pop band. But in this neighborhood beautification, instead of building parks and painting murals, the effect of these changes is to paint over or demolish any existing flavor or culture the band had. Burger Kings replace ethnic restaurants, a Wal-Mart is added, and all of a sudden you've got a record that sounds too much like other recent releases and not enough like the band you have known and liked for the past six years.

The people are still there, though, of course, so this still sounds like Mogwai. Rock Action does sound very much like the band's last major release, the self-titled EP+2, it's just these added Radiohead-isms serve not to enhance but rather distract from what Mogwai does well. The over-use of strings, used abundantly in almost every track, turns Mogwai's manly, gritty Glasgow sound into something much too prissy. In songs where the band members sing, the timing of the songs can be totally ruined as the band members' voices can only be used at an incredibly slow speed, or else the singer would misstep or sound off-key. "Take Me Somewhere Nice" is already a slow song, but the vocals are even slower, dragging the song down even further, turning the song into a molasses flow. Worse yet are the vocals in "Sine Wave" and "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong" which are processed, Brainiac-style, to create something grating enough that it probably should be credited to Mogwai's bratty attitude (something otherwise absent from this album, fitting with its pop styling). These pop additions could have worked, say, if the strings' tone matched that of Mogwai's usual instruments (less pretty, more gritty) or if the band recruited people who could actually sing with the music, but, for the most part, they didn't do it well enough.

There's nothing wrong with adding vocals to Mogwai's music, and when it's done well, such as the guest vocals performance by Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys on "Dial: Revenge," Mogwai is able to make music that is convincingly pop. Here the vocals actually sound, well... nice, instead of just a low, moaning tone used to express some uninspired imagery about UFOs. Of course, the lyrics are not understable since they are in Rhys' native, archaic Welsh (see: end up sounding like a working man's Sigur Ròs). Rhys' voice coos and ahhs wonderfully and is used against the best use of guitar on the record with a few searing tones from the string section.

Much of the guitar riffs are fairly bland, though. Mogwai is no metal band, of course, but the guitarist can be heard playing 1 or 2 notes in 3/4 or 4/4 time in far too many songs. One of those songs ends up being a second highlight though, and the band's only real use of "the build" on this record. Sounding like it belongs on an older Mogwai release, "You Don't Know Jesus" builds and then retreats and then builds again. The guitar playing is unimaginative, but noises and atmospherics fill the space well, and the band follows the formula precisely.

While we should take Mogwai at their word that these changes are a direct result of loving Radiohead, it has to be noted that this more pop sound also comes with the band's first album on a major label (actually, a subsidiary of Edel, "the most successful European label of the decade," responsible for such diverse artists as the wrestlers of the WWF and those monks who do the Gregorian chants). No doubt the band's more pop sound and their new major label digs is a bit more than a happy coincidence. (However, at least there is some of The Rock on Mogwai's new label. Unfortunately it's not from Mogwai but rather that guy named The Rock.)

Mogwai is not an original band. This fact alone is, of course, not enough to slam the band. However, Mogwai seems totally unable to come up with an original thought. They borrow from one band one album, then hear something else and borrow from that; they are not taking the other works and creating a voice of their own. They created a style on their early singles, mixing British atmospherics like My Bloody Valentine with early post-rock like Slint, which made a very good starting point. However, that style changed little before this album, and for their first important change, instead of creating from within, they simply pick the current ichiban crit-rock fave and borrow from them, which seems contrived and desperate, the workings of a band unsure of themselves when other similar bands (from Radiohead to Godspeed You Black Emperor) create more immediate, important music.

Of course, none of this would even be talked about in this review if the music were affecting, and it simply is not. Rock Action is largely unobjectionable background music--easy-listening for people who don't like easy-listening, a sad remnant of what was once a fucking massive band. There are a few good songs, but, overall, it is not worth the time or the money.

jim steed 2001 may 11