Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is an amazing return to form after The Hawk is Howling. Mogwai did just about everything wrong on that album, chiefly forgetting their finely honed sense of structure in favour of songs that didn't justify their considerable length and underproducing their live instruments while experimenting with electronic sounds. Hardcore abandons the electronic aspect and doesn't quite follow through on the prospect of traditional "songs" such as the couple on 2006's Mr. Beast - the vocals are few, far between and fucked up. What it does do is expand the Mogwai sound in its own way. It's the most upbeat Mogwai album in...well, ever, and only occasionally relies on the soft-loud dynamic they've fallen back on so many times before. It's mostly loud, and the more maudlin moments, when they come, feel earned. Hawk's experimentation locked out the listener and tested their patience with its long, meandering jams. It was very much a "you can either get into it or you can't" dichotomy. Hardcore, on the other hand, sounds as if it was a very liberating exercise and it lets the listener in on the fun. The very Neu!-sounding "Mexican Grand Prix" and the exuberantly fuzzy "Rano Pano" are probably the biggest surprises. Perhaps the best thing of all is that drummer Stuart Braithwaite - a model of restraint, but more by circumstance than by choice lately - gets to cut loose like he hasn't in ages.
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