SPIN

7

• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

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Release Date: February 15, 2011
Label: Sub Pop

These builders of instrumental skyscrapers have evolved almost imperceptibly: Casual listeners won't find massive differences between the Scots' seventh album and 1997's classic debut Mogwai Young Team. But there's always room for another cleverly titled post-rock monolith as resounding as "How to Be a Werewolf" or an elegy as affecting as "Too Raging to Cheers." Sure, "San Pedro" jars slightly by skipping the usual build-and-release formula in favor of straightforward chug, but Hardcore is mostly content to refine the band's epic, frequently breathtaking constructions.