Mogwai – As the Love Continues

On new album As the Love Continues, Mogwai continue to build on – and experiment with – their bombastic sound

Album Review by Lewis Wade | 18 Feb 2021
  • Mogwai - As The Love Continues
Album title: As the Love Continues
Artist: Mogwai
Label: Rock Action
Release date: 19 Feb

Released 25 years after their debut single, As the Love Continues is Mogwai's tenth studio album. It's a continuation of their bombastic instrumental rock, adding enough new experiments to keep things interesting, but staying close enough to their well-hewn sound to ensure a cosy familiarity.

The first single, Dry Fantasy, is curiously one of the gentlest cuts here, leaning more on the band's space-rock inclinations, creating a textured, detailed soundscape without ever reaching the furious intensity of their classic songs (plenty of others here do that just fine). The wonderfully-named Fuck Off Money and Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever flirt with heavily manipulated vocals, while Ritchie Sacramento features genuine, actual singing(!). It gives bittersweet, reflective snippets, inspired by David Berman and others, looking back through the past and lamenting those who've 'disappeared in the sun'.

Midnight Flit manages to step up the cinematic grandeur even further (quite a feat for this band) with contributions from Atticus Ross, adding ethereal strings to the mix and culminating in a gorgeously chaotic fever pitch. The following track, Pat Stains, starts off as a palate-cleanser until Colin Stetson shows up with his massive saxophone, letting loose a bit of skronk to upset the delicate balance.

Supposedly, We Were Nightmares is a real highlight late in the album, unfurling a glittering krautrock chug to swallow up its radiophonic samples before It's What I Want To Do, Mum finishes with an eerie, echo-laden jam that could've been taken from any of their previous nine releases.

The album premiered with an online show from Tramway earlier this month, and this is a fantastic collection of songs that are going to fit in seamlessly with the Mogwai classics once live music returns.

Listen to: Supposedly, We Were Nightmares, Richie Sacramento, Midnight Flit


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