Mr. Beast : Mogwai : Review : Rolling Stone

Guitar-wielding Glaswegian five-piece Mogwai have long delighted in the seeming contradiction of playing somber, go-deaf-to-this noise rock while peddling bitingly funny slogancentric T-shirts (BLUR ARE SHITE, proclaimed a Brit-pop-era classic). These twin sensibilities come together in the humorous but revealing name Castle of Doom, the Glasgow home base where they recorded studio album number five. With its plodding tempo, slow-woven guitars, melancholy piano chords and moments of crushing loudness, "Friend of the Night" is representative of much of the album, but Mr. Beast's best bits are those that dare to be different. "Acid Food" combines a rudimentary drum-machine beat and pedal steel guitar to sound like the Jesus and Mary Chain way out West, and the precious elegy "I Chose Horses" features a vocal incantation from Tetsuya Fukagawa of Japanese hardcore band Envy. This sturdy Beast is the ideal steed for your next epic trek to Mordor.