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Happy Songs for Happy People | 
| Artist: Mogwai
Label: Pias
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £4.01 (45%)
New (13) Used (7) from £3.56
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 3857
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5413356453522
ASIN: B00009AHN2
Release Date: June 9, 2003
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Hunted by a Freak | | • | Moses? I Amnt | | • | Kids will be Skeletons | | • | Killing all the Flies | | • | Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep | | • | Ratts of the Capital | | • | Golden Porsche | | • | I know you are but what am I? | | • | Stop Coming to my House |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Scots avant-rockers Mogwai may never quite shake their reputation as determined sonic brutalists, but a spin of Happy Songs for Happy People demonstrates that they're no longer simply set on rendering the aural equivalent of being sucked out a spaceship airlock. Although always a democracy, previously, Stuart Braithwaite had taken on the role of Mogwai's bandleader-by-proxy, his tumultuous guitar roar the outfit's most obvious hallmark. Now, however, multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns appears to fulfil this role--albeit, with much more restraint--crooning effect-heavy vocals somewhere from the wispy heart of "Hunted By a Freak", teasing out a meditative piano line on the ghostly "I Know You Are But What Am I?". Indeed, more than any other Mogwai work, sheer bliss appears to be this album's singular aim: even the amp-busting crescendo of "Ratts of the Capital" matches its dark metal pomp with chiming orchestra bells and starburst lead-guitar lines. No sudden banjo interludes or no guest vocals jar with the album's slow passage towards its conclusion--and it's a fact that plants the fear that maybe Mogwai are all played out. True, it's hard to shake the feeling that they'll never again write something as monumental as Come On Die Young. But even revolving in their ever-tightening spiral, Mogwai sound lush and powerful. Their time is not yet past. --Louis Pattison
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Sheer quality March 30, 2008
I've only heard a few of their tracks before, and just bought this finally last week (!!), since then I've listened to it constantly - all I can say that this is now one of the best CD I have, and I have A LOT of music of all types of genre. Buy this now.
Happy sadness November 29, 2007
If you watch channel 4 you will have heard snatches of this as it is their favourite choice for between programme breaks & trailers. The 4th album from the Glasgow post rockers sees them blend their loud / quiet guitars with synths and vocoded vocals to create a fuller and slightly more commercial sound. The songs retain Mogwais trademark melancholy tone but gain more power and identity from the richness of the sound without any loss of power. Beautiful powerful, sad yet uplifting, post rock has never felt more emotional.
this is fine stuff September 5, 2007
happy songs for happy people is the fourth album bu scottish post rock icons mogwai (named after the breed of little monsters in gremlins).This album is different than their others because it is more laid back in terms of its aggression,in fact there is little of such the act indeed.This is an album of grace and subtle tones,the guitar is used but as an aid to the violins,viola,organ,piano,cello and even bells.
Mogwai are to all extents and purposes an instrumentalist act but three tracks here include vocals nevertheless,two of which are done on vocoder,which gives the sound a very electronic edge to it.
The album is 41 minutes of beautiful music and being patient with this album may be needed,repeated listens bring the songs more glory and there is some very stirring stuff here,never over pretentious to be truthful like alot of bands in the same style,mogwai create atmosphere and emotion,good stuff if the truth be set free.
More Rock Action May 31, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In a way this album exemplifies the musician's perennial problems of trying to square the circle by coming up with something different whilst staying the same. From the opening notes this is clearly identifiable as being Mogwai and as it progresses can be heard to equal the quality of its predecessors. The individuality of their musical identity creates unenviable inbuilt difficulties: if a piece resembles an earlier recording, the band is laid open to charges of stagnation, of simply having further stabs at basically recording the same album in a new guise; if it differs too much, they risk being accused of losing their identity, or even of selling out and becoming too commercial.
Perhaps tellingly, the two songs that featured in the top ten of the 2003 John Peel Festive Fifty, the only two to be placed, were Hunted By A Freak and the eight-minute epic Ratts Of The Capital, as these side-openers contain the most recognisably Mogwai trademark qualities: the sinister, slow building of the soundscape, the quiet/loud/quiet passages, the tortured guitar. However, elsewhere on the record there are several subtle indications that Mogwai have plenty left to say, musically speaking, and there is more of a democratic band feel than in some of their earlier guitar-led pieces. Four of the tracks are augmented by cello or violin, and a string quartet is employed to atmospheric effect on Killing All The Flies.
As always, the titles remain enigmatic and willfully ungrammatical (Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep; Moses? I Amn't), and in a mark of the new maturity and restraint shown throughout this extremely listenable record, most of the pieces are only three or four minutes long. This is not a record that gives away all its secrets on the first listen, but rewards repeated plays. This is in no small part due to the skilful engineering led by Tony Doogan at the CaVa studios in Glasgow, but also to the collaborative efforts and musical empathy of the band themselves.
 i don't care how 'underground' they used to be. stop over-rating this album! April 30, 2006
5 out of 24 found this review helpful
This is my only Mogwai album.I bought it having heard the single 'Hunted By a Freak',- undeniably a beautiful tune. However, i soon grew tired of this album. It sounds like the soundtrack to every car ad and documentary you've seen in the last decade. The repetition within the songs is boring. The repetition of the same simple formula throughout the album (start simple, add instruments playing slight variations on the original part, CRESCENDO, fin) is boring. I could have written this album myself over one weekend,- and so could you, if you could afford the amount of electronic gimmickry upon which these lads so clearly rely. If the millenium bug had existed Mogwai would not. I loved 'Happy Songs For Happy People' for the first week or so. I'm still gonna give 'Come on die young' a go though.
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