Sometimes it’s easier to track a band’s development when they have songs, and lyrics, and vocalists, and all that sort of thing. With Mogwai, who generally let the instruments do the talking, it’s a little different. OnEvery Country’s Sun there is, admittedly, the excellent Party In The Dark, with its echoes of New Order, and David Holmes’s I Heard Wonders, but lyrics like ‘Hungry for another peace of mind, silent and impatient without time’ are opacity city.
What can be discerned is that Every Country’s Sun fits neatly into the pattern of 21st-century Mogwai releases, with the charge of Come On Die Young and Young Team channelled into a quieter but still often relentless mood. The slight trance of opening track Coolverine sits comfortably with the staticky grunt of Battered At A Scramble (this album is stuffed with great titles) while aka 47 would be quite happy on one of Eno’s ambient records and the superbly named Don’t Believe The Fife sounds like a theme tune written by a steam engine. A 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.
