Emerging from Scotland's eclectic pop-rock landscape, Mogwai's Come On Die Young is an unsettling daydream of an album that hovers between the austere and chaotic. Reminiscent of albums by such forward-thinking iconoclasts as Sonic Youth and the little-known American band Slint in its slow, dry rhythms and song-to-song flow, Mogwai's is more resourceful than either band's efforts, hurling unusual samples against shifty song structures and layers of brooding guitar wash. Inventive touches replace actual vocals, such as when the jabberings of a play-by-play announcer suddenly take on the quality of dark metaphors in "Helps Both Ways" and long instrumental passages inspire a restless imagery that lyrics never could reach. Yet for all its darker qualities, Come On Die Young is more determined and serious than sinister, employing a ferocity that transcends mere menace and trading impenetrable gloom for a certain shadowy bliss. --Matthew Cooke
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