The Bad Fire ［3LP+CD］＜Green + Black Vinyl＞

Mogwai began the 2020s with something of a renaissance. As the Love Continues was the bands first number one album in the U.K., while the documentary Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound chronicled how they changed the vocabulary of indie rock during their first 25 years together. This renewed appreciation of the group wasnt just a reflection of their legacy. By the time of As the Love Continues release, Mogwais music was more approachable than ever, with an immediacy and presence that bolstered their time-tested gift for mood. They continue in a similar vein on The Bad Fire, another album that distills their history of experimentation into a remarkably accessible whole. Just how easily they blend their eras and ideas with hooky results is evident on their 11th full-lengths singles (like As the Love Continues, this is the rare Mogwai album with songs that sound like honest-to-goodness singles). "God Gets You Back" may be nearly seven minutes long, but its sense of momentum as it soars from frosty electronics to driving shoegaze motoric is an impressive feat of pop-minded pacing. Likewise, "Fanzine Made of Flesh" and "Lion Rumpus" condense the bands anthemic surge into appealing nuggets. Mogwai prevent things from becoming too predictable with the puckish textures and beats of "Hammer Room," the brooding, surfy "Pale Vegan Hip Pain" -- a reminder of the bands brilliance at turning simple melodic phrases into sonic universes -- and the towering "Hi Chaos," which builds from prickly six-string interplay worthy of Young Team to lofty keyboards. Though Mogwai experienced unimaginable highs while making this album, there were also lows, among them the life-threatening illness of keyboardist Barry Burns daughter. The Bad Fire takes its name from working-class Glaswegian slang for hell, and the band transform feelings of infernal dread into something beautiful on "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others," a classic Mogwai slow burn that makes the most of their expert tension and release. This more emotive side of the album shines on "18 Volcanoes" confessional dream pop and on "Fact Boy," where a winsome fiddle brings the songs twinkling synths down to earth in genuinely heartwarming fashion. It might be a smaller-scale album than As the Love Continues, but The Bad Fire is the sound of a band thats still making vital music 30 years after they formed. ~ Heather Phares

初の全英1位に輝いた前作『As The Love Continues』から4年、その続編にあたるニュー・アルバムが完成。その間に個々が味わった困難や喪失感に着想を得たそうで、穏やかな空気を纏った"Fanzine Made Of Flesh"や幻想的な"God Gets You Back"など彼ららしい美意識で緻密に形成された楽曲が並ぶ。今回はジョン・コングルトンがプロデュース/ミックスを担当。
bounce (C)狛犬