The Bad Fire

Mogwai began the 2020s with something of a renaissance. As the Love Continues was the band's first number one album in the U.K., while the documentary Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound chronicled how they changed the vocabulary of indie rock during their first 25 years together. This renewed appreciation of the group wasn't just a reflection of their legacy. By the time of As the Love Continues' release, Mogwai's music was more approachable than ever, with an immediacy and presence that bolstered their time-tested gift for mood. They continue in a similar vein on The Bad Fire, another album that distills their history of experimentation into a remarkably accessible whole. Just how easily they blend their eras and ideas with hooky results is evident on their 11th full-length's singles (like As the Love Continues, this is the rare Mogwai album with songs that sound like honest-to-goodness singles). "God Gets You Back" may be nearly seven minutes long, but its sense of momentum as it soars from frosty electronics to driving shoegaze motoric is an impressive feat of pop-minded pacing. Likewise, "Fanzine Made of Flesh" and "Lion Rumpus" condense the band's anthemic surge into appealing nuggets. Mogwai prevent things from becoming too predictable with the puckish textures and beats of "Hammer Room," the brooding, surfy "Pale Vegan Hip Pain" -- a reminder of the band's brilliance at turning simple melodic phrases into sonic universes -- and the towering "Hi Chaos," which builds from prickly six-string interplay worthy of Young Team to lofty keyboards. Though Mogwai experienced unimaginable highs while making this album, there were also lows, among them the life-threatening illness of keyboardist Barry Burns' daughter. The Bad Fire takes its name from working-class Glaswegian slang for hell, and the band transform feelings of infernal dread into something beautiful on "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others," a classic Mogwai slow burn that makes the most of their expert tension and release. This more emotive side of the album shines on "18 Volcanoes"' confessional dream pop and on "Fact Boy," where a winsome fiddle brings the song's twinkling synths down to earth in genuinely heartwarming fashion. It might be a smaller-scale album than As the Love Continues, but The Bad Fire is the sound of a band that's still making vital music 30 years after they formed. ~ Heather Phares