Mr. Beast

Rolling Stone (p.68) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "With its plodding tempo, slow-woven guitars, melancholy piano chords and moments of crashing loudness, 'Friend of the Night' is representative of much of the album." Q (p.117) - Ranked #86 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006." Uncut (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "MR. BEAST finds the Glasgow five-piece returning to a more primitive sound....The songs here are concise..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.93) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "MR. BEAST yanks heartstrings as well as eardrums, best evidenced on 'Acid Fool', where Stuart Braithwaite's distorted vocals and a pedal steel guitar drizzle deliciously from the speakers."

Possibly the most accessible yet sophisticated album Mogwai has released, Mr. Beast strips away most of the electronic embellishment of their recent work in favor of a back-to-basics sound that returns to and expands on the approach they pioneered on Young Team. Mr. Beast is also a surprisingly spontaneous-sounding album -- in the best possible sense, its freshness makes it feel like a recorded practice session and also helps give relatively delicate pieces like "Team Handed" the same amount of impact that heavy, searing tracks like the closer, "We're No Here," have. Interestingly, more of Mr. Beast tends toward the former kind of song than the latter; "Friend of the Night," "Emergency Trap," and the glorious, slow-burning album opener, "Auto-Rock," give the album an unusually refined, even elegant feel that is underscored by the prominent use of piano and lap steel in the arrangements. On songs like "Acid Food" and the magnificent "I Chose Horses" -- which features cavernously deep bass and spoken word vocals by Tetsuya Fukagawa from the Japanese hardcore band Envy -- Mr. Beast feels downright pastoral. However, Mogwai doesn't give up their heavy side entirely, as the aforementioned "We're No Here" and "Glasgow Mega-Snake" show; any song that has either "mega" or "snake" in the title should rock, and this one does, kicking off with a claustrophobic snarl of guitars that makes this one of the most intense pieces Mogwai has ever recorded. Mr. Beast manages to be immediate without sounding dumbed-down.. ~ Heather Phares

ペンギンのようにピョコピョコと動くスチュワート・ブレイスウェイトのかわいらしい姿は、着ぐるみに身を包んだ仮の姿だった。モグワイの新作はまさに野獣と化したサウンドだ。ノイズが増強されたラウドなギターと幾重にも重なる音のレイヤーに、快楽指数はグンとアップ。そして大胆に採り入れられたピアノが神々しく鳴り響く。ライヴの迫力にいちばん近いモグワイ史上もっとも荒々しく、もっとも美しい作品だ!
bounce (C)大久保 洋二