Come on die young

"Other than the samples, it's the pace of the album that still manages to intrigue. Almost every track trundles along at a stoned pace, but introspective guitar flourishes indicate that Mogwai aren't a band out of their heads. Each song is largely driven by slow kick-snares and symbols, with the likes of 'Ex-Cowboy' morphing into a cacophonic maelstrom of percussion and squalling guitar, reminding you that this is a band who know how to let it all out when they want to. The closest thing to a classic pop song is the now legendary 'Cody'. All soft, wistful lyrics and simple guitar chords, it's Mogwai at their most emotional and heartfelt. It is leant all the more power as actual words on the band's records are relatively uncommon, meaning that the moments that do are even more emphatic than the instrumentals and, in this case, have the possibility to tear-jerk".

"While none of the demos here differ dramatically from their finished versions, you get a clearer picture of just how much studious fine-tuning went into the final tracklist: in its original form ... Some supplementary tracks, on the other hand, provide a welcome respite from Come On Die Young's meticulous approach: the included Travels in Constants, Vol. 12 EP-a limited-edition release for Temporary Residence's mail-order series-both hearkens back to the post-shoegaze drone of Mogwai's earliest work, while anticipating the anthemic surges of the subsequent Rock Action. The EP's mix of tremulous guitar reverberations, flute-like melodies, and pretty piano reveries may boast a decidedly different tenor and texture than Come On Die Young, but are nonetheless a product of that album's guiding philosophy: For all its seeming ideological alignment with crash-and-burn punk-rock nihilism, Come On Die Young is the sound of Mogwai committing themselves to the long haul".

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