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Sep 5, 2017This album shows that there’s plenty of life in this band yet, and they’re changing and developing whilst also addressing the past. But most importantly, they’re still creating interesting, vital albums.
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Aug 31, 2017Every Country’s Sun is an intent-drenched return to form from a band who, thank Christ, have never once abandoned it.
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Aug 18, 2017A break from the band’s soundtrack work, ironically, Every Country’s Sun sounds, like a brilliant soundtrack in its own right. To what is up to you.
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MagnetSep 18, 2017There are hard and soft edges all over Every Country's Sun, and both accounts have made us happy campers. Again. [No. 146, p.56]
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Aug 31, 2017Despite the odd misstep--like the distant minimalism of “1000 Foot Face”--the album soars with a vibrancy that sustains it over its nearly hourlong running time.
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Oct 25, 2017A lot of this terminology may sound familiar to the Mogwai devoted, but Every Country’s Sun does signal a change in attitude and confidence, and there’s no more convincing argument than that.
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Sep 5, 2017This refinement in Mogwai’s modus operandi suits them well. Where once their revolutionary sound startled, their evolutionary execution now beguiles--and keeps them several steps ahead of the pack.
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Sep 1, 2017It has enough experimentation in it to throw off fans of old, but Every Country's Sun is a Mogwai album at heart. It's just marching to a different drum. It jars you like the Beasts of No Nation soundtrack but leaves you, as the title implies and wants, much more hopeful.
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Sep 1, 2017Every Country's Sun sounds pleasingly massive, as any Mogwai album should, as there is something specifically about Fridmann's techniques that just understands the band's heavy hitting style.
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Sep 1, 2017Vivid, compelling and unafraid of delving into new territory, Mogwai have found the ideal combination of progression and familiarity.
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Aug 31, 2017Although Every Country’s Sun isn’t a flawless album (there are a number of tracks in the middle section that need more time to kick in), it shows us Mogwai nowhere near losing their touch.
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Aug 31, 2017Sometimes the album is pensive or disturbing. Elsewhere, it’s hymnal and graceful (Coolverine), or brutal (1,000 Foot Face). It’s not so much as quiet-then-loud as the sound of transcendental near-silence gradually erupting into a sonic nuclear meltdown.
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Aug 30, 2017One of the most consistent post-rock bands in terms of pacing, song structure and style, the Scottish Guitar Army's ninth studio album doesn't exactly break new ground; instead, it finds them subtly refining their recent, synth-focused sound to great success.
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Aug 29, 2017[The] spirit of reflection bleeds into Every Country’s Sun, their latest effort, which draws and borrows themes and styles from across their career to build a whole as monumental as anything they’ve achieved so far.
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Aug 22, 2017The once-lairy Scots' high-volume potency remains beyond question. [Oct 2017, p.92]
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Aug 18, 2017Mogwai capture a lot of the raw rage of their '90s material while exhibiting a further evolution of a deft hand at electronic refinement. [Jul - Sep 2017, p.58]
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Aug 18, 2017Every Country’s Sun feels honed, and passages of ponderous string-picking now flow serenely into the bursts of noise (1,000 Foot Face, Old Poisons) that make them such an imposing force live.
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UncutAug 18, 2017Mogwai are still exploring the push-pull dynamics of soft and harsh and slow and fast with almost bewilderingly pleasing results. [Oct 2017, p.35]
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Sep 5, 2017At its best, Every Country’s Sun is brash, gritty, unpretentious, and thrillingly claustrophobic--a work of volume and violence in tight spaces.
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Sep 5, 2017These aren’t bad songs. They’re very good songs that narrowly miss being great, mainly because they rush or nix the endings.
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Aug 30, 2017The band’s new album, Every Country’s Sun, doesn’t necessarily represent a significant break from their norm, but it does offer a consistency that allows an easy flow from one track to another, all the while relying on sonics rather than singing to convey their passion and intents.
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Oct 3, 2017There's a fine line between repeating and elaborating on a band's style, especially when that band has had as distinctive and lengthy a career as Mogwai's. Nevertheless, Every Country's Sun has enough great moments to please fans.
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Sep 7, 2017Every Country’s Sun certainly has some very lovely, dense, and poignant moments borne out of creative and unpredictable arrangements, yet the majority of it fails to leave any impression other than boredom.
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Sep 1, 2017A considered evolution from first minute to last, with no real enforced show in between, it may not be immediately obvious but by the end one truth remains clearer than ever, across a whole album--Mogwai can really do scale.
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Aug 31, 2017Though rooted in familiar influences--“Crossing The Road Material” is like a more anchored Neu!, while “Old Poisons” is old-school psychedelia, with squealing organ and guitar swathed in drums--Mogwai apply subtle details that are unmistakably their own.
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Sep 5, 2017Old Poisons raises some of the 90s indie furies the band seems to have outgrown, but elsewhere music that’s supposedly sparse ends up feeling hollow.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 20 out of 23
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Mixed: 2 out of 23
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Negative: 1 out of 23
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Oct 12, 2017