Mogwai Find New in the Familiar with ‘The Bad Fire’

Given their 11th album’s 24 January 2025 release date, Mogwai seem to have known that things would be challenging for the world after 2024. Its title, The Bad Fire, is Scottish slang for hell. Its song titles include “Hi Chaos” and “If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others”. The vibrant cover art by Dave Thomas looks like a volcano awaiting a terrible eruption or perhaps a crater caused by a city-sized asteroid.

Mogwai have long purveyed in music that could score to an apocalyptic event – a song like Rock Action’s (2001) centerpiece “You Don’t Know Jesus” should have music supervisors for programs like The Last of Us salivating. The superficial markers of The Bad Fire suggest Mogwai are looking to embrace this central aspect of their aesthetic.

Yet what unfolds on The Bad Fire avoids merely recycling the brooding crescendos that have been Mogwai staples since 1997’s Young Team. The tension-inducing accidentals of the main guitar lick of “Hi Chaos” could fit comfortably on classic LPs like Come on Die Young (1999) or Rock Action (2006). The masterful rising action of “If You Find This World” makes it a first cousin of tunes like “I Love You, I’m Going to Blow Up Your School” from 2008’s The Hawk is Howling.

But for every instance where Mogwai work from within their wheelhouse, there’s a corresponding case where they find evolutions for their sound. The curiously named “Fanzine Made of Flesh” kicks off like a pop-punk song from the 2000s, perhaps something Fountains of Wayne might have written. “18 Volcanoes” indulges a throwback to early 1990s shoegaze. The Bad Fire is unmistakably Mogwai, but it’s also not content to play the hits.

This sonic variety evidences that Mogwai’s first instinct in responding to challenging times is not simply to lean on the “slowly-glide-to-the-loud-part” strategy that made them famous with songs such as “Like Herod” and “Mogwai Fear Satan”. The Bad Fire follows a time of personal tumult for the members of this Scottish quartet, principally for keyboardist Barry Burns, whose daughter underwent grueling treatment for cancer.

Were the names of the record and many of the songs different, one might not get the sense that Mogwai experienced any distinct difficulty since their previous outing, especially since that LP, 2021’s As the Love Continues, shot to the top of the UK music charts in its first week of release, a career first. However, the context of The Bad Fire’s composition reveals the musical complexity of this group and how deeply they have gradually burrowed into their collective artistic identity to innovate their artistic expression. 

When the songs are at their strongest, Mogwai sound as vital as ever. The synth figure at the start of “God Gets You Back” creates an ecstatic, anticipatory air that sets up the record marvelously. “Fact Boy” closes the proceedings in a dreamy, elegiac fashion that testifies to the skill of musicians who know how rich the standard rock group configuration can be without vocals present. Even in moments where Mogwai operate on autopilot, as they do on the cavernous guitar reverb of “Pale Vegan Hip Pain”, a kind of Godspeed You! Black Emperor B-side is replete with post-rock signifiers, and the music feels integrated into the flow of the whole record.

However, the instrumental successes of The Bad Fire make the instances where vocals rise to the top of the mix all the more jarring. Guitarist Stuart Braithwaite has taken to the microphone many times; this critic’s favorite instance is “Mexican Grand Prix” from 2011’s Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, an earnest tribute to Krautrock, motorik and all. There, Braithwaite’s processed vocals blend fluidly into the song’s driving rhythm to the point where they become one facet of the instrumental instead of the leading element in the manner of a conventional rock configuration.

By contrast, Braithwaithe’s singing on The Bad Fire distracts from the more dynamic instrumental aspects. “God Gets You Back” and “Fanzine Made of Flesh” render him as Mr. Roboto, which, in the former’s case, deflates the drama of the music. On “18 Volcanoes”, Braithwaite sings more cleanly yet ends up giving a boilerplate shoegaze performance, arguably a kind of Kevin Shields impression. 

However, then you hear a song like late album highlight “Hammer Room”, which centers on a bouncy keyboard figure that sounds like palm-muted piano, and suddenly you’re reminded of why Mogwai have been so important to the world of (principally) instrumental rock.

The group are coming up on the 30th anniversary of Young Team (2027). In the intervening time, they have built a discography defined not by 180-degree turns but by gradual expansions of a recognizable sonic. The Bad Fire wouldn’t rank among Mogwai’s finest achievements, but it does provide a portrait of a band still finding the new in the familiar. Amidst the many destructive fires in the world now, such artistry should be a comfort.