HARDCORE WILL NEVER DIE, BUT YOU WILL

"Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will" is a natural evolution of "The Hawk Is Howling", attempting to reach a more modern sound.

In a few years, I believe that sadly, we can start labeling Post-Rock music such as this as "Post-Post-Rock". Clearly, Mogwai have abandoned the song structure they've always used, and that a good chunk of Post-Rock uses as well: the build ups. Maybe that is an exaggeration, as a matter of fact I can recall songs that even on this album use such a structure. But most of it is extremely accessible, probably because the band wanted to appeal to a slightly different crowd, and even because they felt the necessity of change, and I think that is a good thing. But overall I was more satisfied with the "Hawk Is Howling" experiment rather than this one.

Musically, compared to the previous album, not too much has changed: the use of electronics and even synths is amplified, the drums are strong, there's a lot of piano in these songs, as well as the usual guitars. There are interesting addictions however that were pretty much new for Mogwai, such as the violin.This album is to me a osrt of continuation to "Hawk Is Howling", as it shares many characteristics, but like I said the results for me are slightly different, finding the previous album more emotional in some points. I find that the only song I like a lot is "White Noise", the opener, which is full of emotion and reminds me a bit of 'I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead". "Rano Pano" is also a good track that I enjoy, with a somewhat robotic beat and kind of artificial flavor to it. But in the end most of this album sounds to me a bit too artificial, there's not too much humanity in it. I like when music is robotic, but only when it makes me actually believe it was played by robots. This album is not played by robots, it is played by some of the greatest Post-Rock musicians, and I can sense that, and the contrast for me becomes annoying. The ending track, "You're Lionel Richie", is another highlight for me, a song that has a nice build, but has also a really nice atmosphere.

An album I at first felt very skeptical about, but then it grew on me a little bit, despite me still having pretty big issues for it. Mogwai fans seem to enjoy this quite a bit, so I would recommend it to any fan who hasn't actually listened to it yet.

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