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A superb album.
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Alternative PressWhile Mogwai once seemed too ambitious for their own good, Mr. Beast perfectly distills the essence of the band's raison d'etre. [Apr 2006, p.214]
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Ten years after they first assaulted us, Mogwai remain as vital as ever.
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Unlike previous releases, when we were taken on several rides within a solitary track, the thrills and tempo changes have been stretched out to album length, making this offering essentially a forty-three-minute song, with each track becoming a spike or dip along the way.
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Compelling and emotionally charged.
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New Musical Express (NME)A monster of a record. [4 Mar 2006, p.31]
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Entertainment WeeklyProof that smart music can be fierce, too. [10 Mar 2006, p.68]
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It's all a lesson in taking the rough with the smooth, from the best teachers around.
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Q MagazineWhile the sense of danger that characterised 1997's Mogwai Young Team or 2001's Rock Action might have abated, Mr Beast shows a band who have lost none of their bark or their bite. [Mar 2006, p.108]
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Immediate without sounding dumbed-down, Mr. Beast shows the band at the peak of their powers.
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FilterSure it's louder, but it's too self-disciplined and too well-arranged. [#19, p.96]
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There are no huge surprises on this album - it sounds and feels exactly how you'd expect - but somehow "Mr Beast" still seems vital and forward thinking.
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Far from a drop off in coherence, Mr. Beast is just another stop on a long, strange, satisfying trip.
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Mr. Beast isn’t Mogwai’s most challenging or daring record, but it might be its most beautiful or powerful.
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MojoDelivers on the melodic promise of 2001's Rock Action, teetering between art-bruised fragility during its slower, gentler moments and flashes of stereo-buckling metal. [Mar 2006, p.93]
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It is hard to say which side of Mogwai is more moving, the quietly beautiful or the transcendently loud, but the great thing about Mr. Beast is that you don't have to decide.
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Under The RadarThe revelation of Mr. Beast is that it's the closest Mogwai have come to capturing the raw intensity of their live power. [#13, p.93]
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At this point, Mogwai have learned enough from their mistakes and built enough on their strengths that Mr. Beast could be considered by all means a flawless record.
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The result is that we have a transitory album, but also a typically beautiful and subtle one.
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A solid – albeit unadventurous - long-player, which refines instead of redefines and consolidates more than it innovates.
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A beautifully tense and thoughtful record.
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Mr. Beast is by far Mogwai’s most accessible album to date, teetering between epic hard rock and a melodic, driven vocal delivery.
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With its plodding tempo, slow-woven guitars, melancholy piano chords and moments of crushing loudness, "Friend of the Night" is representative of much of the album, but Mr. Beast's best bits are those that dare to be different.
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For the most part, "Mr. Beast" finds Mogwai quite comfortable in a genre they've helped define.
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Mr. Beast's shortcomings lie not with what's present, but with what's missing. Mogwai are capable of tremendous beauty, poignant gloom, and ear-splitting sonic pyrotechnics, but only transcend when they combine each of these elements. Here, they rarely give themselves enough building room to conjoin these moods and styles.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 37 out of 39
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Mixed: 1 out of 39
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Negative: 1 out of 39
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May 13, 2011
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CarlSMar 30, 2007
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OttoZOct 21, 2006Hypnotic and interesting, artful and always cool.