• Record Label: Matador
  • Release Date: Sep 23, 2008
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Negative: 0 out of 25

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  1. 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 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.
  2. Mar 10, 2021
    6
    Interesting 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
    Interesting 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.
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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 27
  2. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. 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]
  2. Masters at building tension upon tension then gently letting it go, their cyclical instrumentals are both sorrowful and consoling.
  3. 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]