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. Pitchfork
    45
    Hawk makes marginal stylistic advances that it could stand to omit, and it lightly retreads stuff that needs no recapitulation.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  5. Sputnikmusic
    60
    The Hawk Is Howling is just an ambiguous mixture of the band's past.
  6. Uncut
    60
    Fine, but no surprises. [Oct 2008, p.101]
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  7. 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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  8. 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.

User Reviews

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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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