Mogwai
Happy Songs for Happy People
Matador
Gloomy post-rock act, Mogwai, returns to record store shelves this month with its oddly titled forth studio album, Happy Songs for Happy People.
Not known for uplifting melodies -- so that "happy" is an odd choice of words for any Mogwai release -- the combo was formed in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1996.
Joined by former ex-Teenage Fanclub member Brendan O'Hare a year later, the brooding Mogwai released its full-length debut Young Team -- an album teaming with lethargic instrumentals, cinematic soundscapes and background noise -- shortly thereafter.
A remix album, Kicking a Dead Pig, followed, but even with up-tempo re-mixes under its belt, commercial success still eluded Mogwai. 1999's Come on Die Young and 2001's Rock Action, both of which were great albums, saw the band's less than alternative sound become a firm fixture in the indie scene rather than the mainstream.
Like its predecessors, Happy Songs for Happy People is full of rolling guitars, pianos, ethanol-inspired drumming and the occasional, albeit a mild one, foray into distortion and electronica. If lethargy is your thing, then you can't go far wrong with Mogwai's ever so Valium-soaked latest release.
Opening with a trickle of electronica and a string section on the smooth Hunted by a Freak, Mogwai sets out to sedate listeners from the off with a dreamy sound that seeps rather than gushes out of sound systems.
What follows are eight of the combo's finest and most intelligently laid back tunes to date. While far from a joyful album, there is something hypnotically inspiring about all of the material on Happy Songs for Happy People.
Jane's Addiction
Strays
Capitol
LA's infamous hybrid rockers have made a comeback with an album of new material that, while interesting, lacks much of the youthful zeal of the band's early sound.
Gaining notoriety in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s with its crossbred brand of rock, which encompassed metal, punk, funk and jazz, Addiction debuted in 1987 with its rough and ready Jane's Addiction Live.
Less than a year later the combo made its mark on the international music scene with its abrasive major label debut, 1988's Nothing's Shocking. Packed with Led Zeppelin meets The Cure vibes as well as some rather tasteless tunes like Ted, Just Admit It -- a number about serial killer Ted Bundy -- the album was an overnight hit.
It all went wrong following the 1990 release of Ritual de lo Habitual. The combination of heroin and cocaine habits ravaged the band and after just two studio albums Jane's Addiction split up.
Last year Perry Farrell reunited with guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins and, with the addition of Alanis Morissette's bassist, Chris Chaney, resurrected Jane's Addiction. The result of which, Strays, was released last week.
Although possessing all the Jane's Addiction characteristics -- raw edged guitar solos, mellow lyrical moments and heavy bass and percussion -- the album never takes listeners to the same levels as the combo's previous releases.
Guitar heavy tunes sadly see the band veering into U2 territory rather then Jimmy Page-land. And Superhero, a tune that has potential and some great Navarro solos and funky riffs never reaches the crescendo it so richly deserves. The album's only highlight is the fiery opener, True Nature, and even this trespasses dangerously near to Peter Gabriel style prog-rock.
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