I'm a big fan of Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. The strange thing I find about his books is that while I really enjoy reading them, and find the narrative straightforward to follow while reading, I often don't remember the plot afterwards.
In music, I feel the same about Mogwai. When I listen, I really enjoy listening, but nothing seems to stick.
Perpetually behind the times, I only heard Mogwai in the last few years, and picked this, their debut album, up in a charity shop, feeling I needed to investigate further.
The combination of speech segments and moody guitar driven instrumentals really appeals to me, from the gentle introductory piece Yes I Am A Long Way From Home, to the more frantic extended Like Herod, the noise mania of Portfolio, or the almost-song R U Still In It.
And most of the album is in that vein, very listenable, enjoyable, mostly instrumental pieces with speech samples. But play one back to me later, and I won't be able to tell you which one it is.
4* - I thought longer about this than usual, and erred on the side of generosity. Despite my misgivings, I will keep coming back to this, and keep enjoying it.
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