It has been a tumultuous time of change for the Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. Their guitarist of 20 years, John Cummings, left the band in 2015 to pursue solo projects. Producer Dave Fridmann returned to the group for the first time since 2001. The post-rock genre the band helped pioneer, with its five minute, often wordless experiments in instrumental texture, is struggling. Similar bands like Slint, Duster, and the Sea of Cake are gone or remastering greatest hits. Change is hard, but it can be weathered with a solid anchor. With their new album, “Every Country’s Sun,” Mogwai proves they’re as solid as ever.
The album dawns with the high electric tones and strains of “Coolverine.” Many times, even an excellent album can feel like a meticulously rehearsed presentation. This song, however, feels more like running into an old friend you haven’t seen in years; the kind you don’t really have to catch up with, you just pick up right where you left off. If that analogy tracks, then follow it through to getting dinner and spending an evening with that old friend. That’s the feeling of “Every Country’s Sun.”
The band achieves this feeling with a fearless decision to embrace change without changing the elements that define them. Without Cummings’ guitar to lead them, bassist Dominic Aitchison steps up on “Crossing the Road Material.” It feels like the “I’m Spartacus” moment from “Spartacus” except it goes on for seven minutes.
Another key to their continued success seems to be additional peripheral projects. Starting in 2006 with “Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait,” the band has contributed to soundtracks for “Miami Vice,” “The Fountain” and the video game “Life Is Strange.” They scored a popular French TV show called “Les Revenants” and a documentary called “Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise.” The benefit of this ongoing and widely-varied work is a band that doesn’t sound like they get together every few years and put an album together, as they did. Instead, they sound like a cohesive team of busy, professional musicians who, among other things, make albums from time to time. The result is an effortless sound of distinct, unique songs like “Party in the Dark” and “Brain Sweeties” that flow seamlessly into each other like a smooth conversation change.
The minimalism does hit critical mass on “1000 Foot Race” and is the easiest song to completely make you forget where you are and what you’re doing. However, when the rhythmic heartbeat of the beginning of “Don’t Believe the Fife” snaps you back to the present, you could argue that it was the point all along. Maybe that’s how the song got its name.
When some bands succeed, it feels like an action hero disabling a bomb at the last possible second. Instead, with this album, Mogwai gives the feeling of a hardy, experienced, responsible character casually strolling up and disarming the device with full minutes to spare. Then, with the album’s title track, “Every Country’s Sun,” they look into the camera and give a quick wink.
The album is superb, and I hope you check it out. Unlike most music I tell people to listen to, it’s not riddled with profanity, if only because it rarely has words at all. In a single album, Mogwai shows they’re excited and prepared; intrepid and grounded. They make it look easy.