My childhood really came into its own in the 1990s, which is a weird way of say that I was born in mid-1980s, and that I don’t really have any memories of being four years old. This is relevant today because when I first listened to Mogwai, I knew what a mogwai was. I didn’t know about the Chinese mythology mogwai — I knew about the furry little guys that become gremlins if you feed them after midnight. (If you feed me after midnight, I may get a little heartburn, but that’s really about it.)

When I first heard the band Mogwai — it was probably 2000 or 2001, if I’m guessing correctly — I probably thought about Gremlins, but in a passing sort of way. “Neat,” I probably thought. And then I would have listened to the music, and I was quickly disabused of any connection. The opening to Come On Die Young, “Punk Rock,” is almost precisely what you’d expect from post-rock of the era. Mogwai helped define a common post-rock sound of the 2000s: Slow, building guitars, chiming back and forth in their repetition. It’s accented by an Iggy Pop interview with the CBC from 1977^[1]; it’s a testament to Mogwai’s impact that a fair amount of the writing about the Iggy Pop interview actually references this album’s opener.

I still really enjoy Mogwai today. This particular style of post-rock is an oft-imitated one, and for a time, I think it was sort of sound that was almost a default for bands participating in the post-rock sound from 2002 to 2008, excepting of course that Mogwai’s not afraid to add some vocals to the mix.

The 90s were foundational for post-rock, which we’ll see as we traverse through this top 40. Mogwai was right there, building a genre that, like all great artists, they later disavowed. I, for one, love that arc. I also love post-rock and will use the name as a bit of a catch-all at times. Come On Die Young offers, to my mind, a big step forward after the band's 1997 outing Young Team, too.

I don’t have anything particularly deep to say about this album, but it’s sure a good one. I will say that I kind of hate the album cover, and that it makes me deeply uncomfortable for some reason.

#40: Silver Jews — American Water (1998)

Next time: A twee favorite

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I started this project after a former coworker of mine started posting his top 50 albums of the 1990s. I thought it was a really interesting thing — and this is certainly taking a very different form than my list. I was also having a bit of trouble reaching 50 (not without adding some albums I didn't love, at least), so I decided I'd just stick to 40, what with my having turned 40 all-too recently.

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Footnotes

1. "Punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and heartless manipulators, about music that takes up the energies, and the bodies, and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds, of young men, who give what they have to it, and give everything they have to it. And it's a — it's a term that's based on contempt; it's a term that's based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism, and, everything that's rotten about rock 'n' roll. I don't know Johnny Rotten, but I'm sure, I'm sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did. What sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is in fact the brilliant music of a genius. Myself. And that music is so powerful, that it's quite beyond my control. And, ah when I'm in the grips of it, I don't feel pleasure and I don't feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I'm talking about?" (Source: CBC.ca) ↩