Skip to content
Reviews

Mogwai, ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’ (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.