Shortly after Mogwai released their critically acclaimed debut Young Team, they received a bit of bad advice. Their first effort was filled with a traffic jam of feedback and ear-shattering crescendos. They became best known for unbearably loud live shows and starting a beef with Blur, using T-shirts that read, "Blur are shite." But someone somewhere told them that it wasn't good enough. Someone told them pianos were sufficient substitutes for walls of Marshall stack amps. And someone told them to trade in their My Bloody Valentine records and break into the entire Roger Eno catalog.

Suddenly, the Scottish quintet known for their barrages of sound embarked on a new path - except on intermittent EPs in which they maintained their raw aggressiveness. Rather than boosting stock in pediatric doctors and Q-tips, they released several angst-ridden, existential soundtracks. Their second release, Come On Die Young, was a thoroughly disappointing first look at the group's new direction. On subsequent releases Rock Action and Happy Songs For Happy People, Mogwai migrated back to their original sound but were never able to truly resurrect or recreate it.

And their latest attempt, Mr. Beast - seemingly a more wholehearted one - proves this prodigal son isn't coming home quite as soon as we all hoped. The group continues their wayward path with watery compositions and enough keyboard to make Coldplay blush; at least they left out the whiny European vocals.

But it seems as if they tried to give us what we want on Mr. Beast. "Glasgow Mega Snake" is easily their best recording since Young Team. The feedback intro builds and grabs your ears before the sheets of guitar rain down. It rises and falls when it should, and at just fewer than four minutes, it's long enough to pull the listener in and short enough not to bore him.

"Travel is Dangerous" is the lovechild of the group's two different styles, and luckily, their early sound appears to have the dominant genes. Colossal percussion and their signature guitar crescendos are accompanied by a new excursion (relatively speaking, since they first appeared on Rock Action): vocals. The subdued and restrained melodies only bolster the spine-tingling atmospherics of the song.

And while these tracks (especially "Glasgow," due to an Internet leak months ago) made Pavlov's dogs out of Mogwai's entire fanbase, the rest of Mr. Beast fails to deliver. "Friend of the Night" is the epitome of building without direction. Mogwai teeters on the edge of a body-slamming guitar onslaught, but they never come through. "Emergency Trap" and "I Chose Horses" follow with similar disappointment, as does most of the album.

Mogwai are still trying to bring themselves back to glory on Mr. Beast, and we are still holding out hope for that missing link to come home. But when it's all said and done, most people won't care if they eventually come back or not. It turns out music fans aren't that forgiving.

Mogwai
Mr. Beast
Matador

Rating: 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars