The
post-rock godfathers return with their best album for a while – at
least since 2014’s Rave Tapes. It sees them on rather more
familiar ground than they’ve been covering over the last decade or so. Despite
some electronic leanings here and there (especially on the first few tracks), As
the Love Continues is closer in tone and execution to their early work,
especially their 1997 debut, Young Team. This feels like the Mogwai
I first fell in love with. There’s more bite here than there has been for ages,
with album best ‘Ceiling Granny’ (how’s that for a track name?) pounding out a
slide riff to make the hairs stand on end. No post-rock at all on that bad boy,
just rock. Elsewhere, the trademark ‘steady mood building up to crescendo’ is
present and correct, as on ‘Fuck Off Money’ or ‘Pat Stains’. Admittedly, it’s
maybe a little safe: this is Mogwai staying in their lane, at least to
the extent that they have one. So, unlike, say, Rave Tapes or The
Hawk is Howling, As the Love Continues has less capacity to
surprise, as confirmed by its Mercury Music Prize nomination (a shortlist of
inevitably good but safe records). That’s with the exception of lead single
‘Ritchie Sacramento’, on which we get a rare vocal outing from Stuart
Braithwaite, sounding delightfully bored with the whole business. They’ve now
hit album 10 (more if you count soundtrack albums), and they’re still
fantastic.