Scottish Albums of the Decade #10: Mogwai - Mr Beast

With the tag “post-rock” serving as a convenient journalistic denouement for fifteen years of innovative, rousing, often sinister, occasionally whimsical musical exploration, it's easy to forget the many different approaches and styles that label encompasses. Whilst Canadian legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor strove to somehow unite prog melodrama, punk ethics, folk sensitivity and classical dynamics, they overlooked one key ingredient that a certain group of fresh-faced wee guys from Hamilton never forgot: pop.

Mogwai can rightfully claim to have played an enormous part in the success of “post-rock” and its continued prevalence. From Ten Rapid onwards they brought accessibility to a style that was previously just too impenetrable for the masses. Opinions will always differ on which of their many excellent albums best nails the formula and, indeed, almost any of those records could be part of this list, but Mr Beast more than any other gives louder voice to the pop quotient. Certainly much of that “pop” is chewed up and spat at the audience in mouthfuls of enormous, riffing guitar on Glasgow Mega-Snake and the live mushroom-cloud that is We're No Here, but the brevity of the songs, coupled with memorable, hummable riffs, was something no other contemporary had ever really achieved. It's a beautifully balanced and – antithesis to many of the genre's leading names – a daringly varied 43 minutes.

Opener Auto Rock patiently ramps up excitement with a seductive piano and drum crescendo, Acid Food displays the band's knack for incorporating vocals into electronically-infused country and Travel Is Dangerous recalls previous triumphs on Come On Die Young. Where Mr Beast really excels however is at the keystones of Team Handed and Friend of the Night. The former is Mogwai at their reflective, patient best, rising and falling with typical, understated majesty. The latter, accompanied by a charmingly obscure promotional video, perfectly epitomises Mogwai's refreshingly unpretentious embrace of pop, with its relatively conventional structure and gorgeous piano subtly augmented by guitar and electronics. In a career of highs, few have been so unashamedly romantic.