The Hawk Is Howling
by Mogwai
  • Record Label: Matador
  • Release Date: Sep 23, 2008
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Urb
    90
    The Hawk is Howling is Mogwai at its best.
  2. Prefix Magazine
    90
    The songs are classic Mogwai, only more sophisticated--and, as such, startling different.
  3. Filter
    84
    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]
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  5. Mojo
    80
    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]
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  6. Observer Music Monthly
    80
    Masters at building tension upon tension then gently letting it go, their cyclical instrumentals are both sorrowful and consoling.
  7. Slant Magazine
    80
    Hawk Is Howling is a reassertion of Mogwai's strengths and testimony that they are still credible and productive.
  8. Village Voice
    80
    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.
  9. The Guardian
    80
    The lyric-free songs are awe-inspiring, yet accessible.
  10. Dot Music
    80
    These 10 songs evolve unhurriedly and, as with all Mogwai's best moments, like time-lapse photography from the heart of a dark storm.
  11. Dusted Magazine
    80
    This one is subtle, but very much worth exploring.
  12. musicOMH.com
    80
    The Hawk Is Howling is a record that shows Mogwai's lips to be sealed, but speaks volumes about their depth and ingenuity.
  13. AllMusic
    80
    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.
  14. Alternative Press
    80
    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]
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  15. Under The Radar
    80
    This album kills. [Fall 2008, p.77]
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  16. Magnet
    80
    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."
  17. cokemachineglow
    74
    The Hawk is Howling is an immensely satisfying, patient, and expertly crafted album that ranks among their best.
  18. Lost At Sea
    71
    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.
  19. Drowned In Sound
    70
    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
  20. PopMatters
    70
    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.
  21. The A.V. Club
    67
    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.
  22. Q Magazine
    60
    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]
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  23. Uncut
    60
    Fine, but no surprises. [Oct 2008, p.101]
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  24. Tiny Mix Tapes
    60
    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.
  25. Spin
    60
    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.
  26. Sputnikmusic
    60
    The Hawk Is Howling is just an ambiguous mixture of the band's past.
  27. NOW Magazine
    60
    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.
  28. Pitchfork
    45
    Hawk makes marginal stylistic advances that it could stand to omit, and it lightly retreads stuff that needs no recapitulation.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. clem666
    Mar 10, 2021
    6
    Interesting instrumental rock album dotted with some bright and sparkling moments. Coming out of nowhere you suddenly realize instruments areInteresting instrumental rock album dotted with some bright and sparkling moments. Coming out of nowhere you suddenly realize instruments are all raging while trying to speak with you.

    However there are way more often moments of soft levitation and of questionning status-quo. Tracks are long enough to make us lose the north and without any vocal message we end up wandering in this one hour long crossing of the desert. Even the titles are created in order to prevent you to find a certain pattern or a certain interpretation grid.

    At the end of the day it feels like 'The Hawk Is Howling' could have been an amazing and moving experimental rock fresco but instead we have this album in which you will surely find surprises but also (and that was my case) a kind of almost undespicable boredom. Absolutely not a total boredom but more the nostalgic-melancholic kind of boredom as Mogwai makes just enough to keep you awake but not that much to make you wake up sweating at night.    … Full Review »
  2. d_nasty
    May 13, 2011
    7
    Mogwai have been really bouncing around different things in these last few years and are getting on to something here. Every song is great butMogwai have been really bouncing around different things in these last few years and are getting on to something here. Every song is great but what keeps them from absolute perfection is that they are all about 3 minutes too long and the songwriting doesn't change enough for a song like "the sun smells too loud" to be 6 minutes.… Full Review »
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