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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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The Hawk Is Howling
by Mogwai
The sixth album for the Scottish rock band was produced by Andy Miller.
| LABEL: |
Matador |
| RELEASE DATE: |
23 September 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Experimental |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Urb
The Hawk is Howling is Mogwai at its best.
90
Prefix Magazine
The songs are classic Mogwai, only more sophisticated--and, as such, startling different.
84
Filter
How can Scots with such a wry sense of humor make you believe they are so very, very serious? Sometimes the song titles speak for themselves, almost seperate from the music. [Fall 2008, p.94]
80
Magnet
Rest easy, the group that makes you wish you’d gone to film school so you could’ve built a movie around its expansive instrumentals--works that seem to come rumbling from the molten core of the earth itself--hasn’t changed much from the glory days of early albums such as 1997’s "Young Team."
80
All Music Guide
At first, it's tempting to want all of The Hawk Is Howling to be as obviously powerful as its biggest tracks, but with time it reveals itself as one of Mogwai's most masterful blends of delicacy and strength.
80
Alternative Press
There's plenty of classic Mogwai downtempo and hypnotic trance, the likes of which will make you reconsider flippantly using the phrase "epic as fuck" again. [Oct 2008, p.160]
80
Under The Radar
This album kills. [Fall 2008, p.77]
80
Mojo
The Hawk Is Howling finds the Glasgow's guitar army relaxing the taut, economical songcraft of its 2006 predecessor, "Mr. Beast," and setting a new standard for irreverent track titles. [Oct 2008, p.102]
80
Observer Music Monthly
Masters at building tension upon tension then gently letting it go, their cyclical instrumentals are both sorrowful and consoling.
80
Slant Magazine
Hawk Is Howling is a reassertion of Mogwai's strengths and testimony that they are still credible and productive.
80
Village Voice
It's a page out of Mogwai grandchildren Ratatat's playbook, and it shows these Scots doing something we haven't seen them do in a while: evolve.
80
The Guardian
The lyric-free songs are awe-inspiring, yet accessible.
80
Dot Music
These 10 songs evolve unhurriedly and, as with all Mogwai's best moments, like time-lapse photography from the heart of a dark storm.
80
Dusted Magazine
This one is subtle, but very much worth exploring.
80
musicOMH.com
The Hawk Is Howling is a record that shows Mogwai's lips to be sealed, but speaks volumes about their depth and ingenuity.
74
cokemachineglow
The Hawk is Howling is an immensely satisfying, patient, and expertly crafted album that ranks among their best.
71
Lost At Sea
Despite its lack of youthful anarchy, The Hawk Is Howling is an impressive record. Mogwai are among the world's most gifted musical collectives; perhaps they have just been making music too long to want or need to reinvent the game again.
70
PopMatters
Mogwai could very well go their entire career without quite making that perfect album, but when everything they put out is this intricate, idiosyncratic, and immersive, it’s splitting hairs to even care.
70
Drowned In Sound
The Hawk Is Howling may not induce the apprehensive anxiety of "Happy Songs For Happy People" or even match the apocalyptic ambience of "Rock Action," but when taken in isolation, even outside of the Mogwai name, it holds its own as Mogwai's first solely instrumental album
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Hawk wades through the electronic textures and the roiling, tentative mood pieces that make Mogwai's weaker tunes logical (if not ideal) soundtrack fodder. The result, unfortunately, is a lot of running in place, when at this point it'd be far more daring to aim skyward.
60
NOW Magazine
Not that a few half-baked progressions spell disaster for Hawk, a record that methodically moves from dreamy, lush, introspective numbers to tension and ultimately catharsis in the way Mogwai is close to perfecting.
60
Tiny Mix Tapes
Using a combination of brilliant textures and powerful, atypical chord progressions, Mogwai paint a picture equivalent to an auto-stereogram, popularized in those Magic Eye books 15 years ago. You almost need to loose your focus to let the music really sink in.
60
Spin
When they work up a good buzz and growl ('Batcat') or hit a scrumptious riff ('The Sun Smells Too Loud'), Mogwai still take your breath away.
60
Uncut
Fine, but no surprises. [Oct 2008, p.101]
60
Q Magazine
The Hawk Is Howling is similarly impressive [to "Mr. Beast"], the band's earlier experiments in noise more reined in, allowing a subtle and textured approach. [Oct 2008, p.149]
60
Sputnikmusic
The Hawk Is Howling is just an ambiguous mixture of the band's past.
45
Pitchfork
Hawk makes marginal stylistic advances that it could stand to omit, and it lightly retreads stuff that needs no recapitulation.
The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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