Mogwai releases new album 'The Bad Fire' | out 24.01.25

The arrival of a new Mogwai album – their eleventh – is a cause for great celebration. The album’s title, The Bad Fire, is a working-class Scottish term for Hell. It reflects the difficult time that members of the band were going through, particularly keyboardist Barry Burns. ‘Trauma’s a weird thing. I’m still not through it,’ he admits. ‘We were getting ready to start making the album and the doctors were saying my daughter was lucky to be alive. She’s had a bone marrow transplant, she’s come through the chemo and she’s going to be fine. But I’ve had an awful two years. I can only say that the whole time was a complete fucking nightmare.’

New to the studio was American producer John Congleton, known for his work with Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, John Grant and pretty much everyone in between. ‘I got in touch with John after hearing a bunch of records he recorded,’ says Stuart. ‘When we needed someone to come to Scotland to record with us, he was at the top of our list. He is an extremely funny irreverent person as well as being a great producer and engineer. Definitely a unique individual!’

The music of Mogwai is a difficult thing to describe, but an easy thing to experience. At punishing volume it can annihilate your body, leaving you as little more than a head which should by rights fall helplessly to the ground. Yet the music contains an updraft, a sense of beauty encased in the onslaught. This holds you up, suspended and empowered, reminding you that paradise is your birthright. This is especially true of The Bad Fire. It may have been created in dark conditions, but all that is transcended by the act of four musicians working together here, now, in the moment – the only place where Mogwai exist.

This may be Mogwai’s thirtieth anniversary, but you will not hear that in this record. Dwelling in the past, after all, is only an option for those bands who have not found Eternity

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