Mogwai have figured out how to take the energy of their long and noise-filled songs and condense them into even more atomic balls of might. Their fifth full-length is an album of rolling and mostly gentle melancholy. That isn't to say that Mogwai has lost their hard edge; the music does have its heavy moments.
Most of the album has a subterranean or aquatic feeling to it, however. If the instruments aren't floating or weaving they're burrowing towards the warm center of the earth. "Hunted By a Freak" starts things out slowly and surely with a somewhat vocoded voice singing along unintelligibly in the background. The guitars have a bell-like effect to them and ring brightly throughout the track. The rhythm is tense and by the end of the song the mood has been set for an ecstatic experience. Though "Kids Will Be Skeletons" is an upbeat song (and a gorgeous one at that), the first heart-pounding, foot-stomping adventure is "Killing All the Flies." The vocoded voice of mystery makes its return on this one and sweetly caresses the air with the violins and the meandering guitars before everything erupts in a hail of triumph. Strangely enough, that's a great description for how a lot of this music feels. The melodies, though they sound lonely, also have a recovering feel to them; it's the sound of rising up and overcoming. "Ratts of the Capital" is the longest song on Happy Songs and it is the perfect release. I got shivers the first time I heard it and it just keeps sounding better and better. It makes me want to find a chainsaw and go on a rampage for some reason. Mogwai have found a great way of juxtaposing their noiser and heavier moments with their soft and and delicate ones. Overall I think this sets an example: a shotgun to the face doesn't need a ten minute introduction; it's powerful enough by itself.
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