(Rock Action)

Now on their seventh album, Mogwai could be forgiven for taking their feet off the pedal. They haven’t. But there is a feeling on Hardcore …, despite the occasional foray into the monolithic riffage of their early days, that the band are now more comfortable delving further into soundtrack territory, tracks like opener ‘White Noise’ and ‘Death Rays’ being consummate canvases of poignancy, melancholy and a strangely futuristic-retro nostalgia. For old-school fans there are still gargantuan slabs of heaviosity such as closer ‘You’re Lionel Richie’ but overall this is the sound of a band expanding their palette and looking to the future.