Rock Action - Mogwai
Rock Action Image
Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.9 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 17 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Summary: The third LP from Scotland's Mogwai was produced by David Fridmann of Mercury Rev.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 16
  3. Negative: 2 out of 16
  1. Magnet
    100
    A massively significant step forward.... Rock Action is so monumentally magisterial, it approaches near heretical status: the post-post-rock era's Sgt. Pet Sounds' Lonely Hearts Club Band.
    All this publication's reviews
  2. New Musical Express (NME)
    80
    Every note of 'Rock Action' wins every fight they've ever started, touched with an imagination and awareness of the potential of sound that puts them so far up on the moral high ground they're almost lost in the clouds.
  3. Blender
    40
    A 38-minute meditation on how not to build on a hook. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.114]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. The A.V. Club
    30
    Even [producer Dave] Fridmann's ever-clever studio work can't make Rock Action interesting.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. TheVillageDrunk
    10
    This is a damn near perfect.

    Sine Wave opens the album with a wall of sound so powerful it nearly crushes you to death before Take Me Somewhe    re Nice soothes you with it's lush surge, while pondering spaceships over Glasgow.

    Dial: Revenge is a heartbreaking Gruff Rhys-lead tragedy of some kind.

    You Don't Know Jesus easily perfects the heavy build up then 2 right Make 1 Wrong glories in a cinematic soundscape that would put a smile on anyone's face.

    It ends with a Secret Pint, like a drunk friend falling through your front door before opening his heart to you.

    In all seriousness, there's barely a wasted note on Rock Action, Mogwai have tried & came close, but they've never bettered it.    … Expand
  2. Tubz
    10
    Very Pure. Good Album Overall!
  3. jb
    8
    Excellent. Had to listen twice in a row to allow the complexities to be absorbed.
  4. mg
    5
    very uneven, and they shouldn't sing. sine wave is excellent.

See all 11 User Reviews

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