Post-rock
Mogwai have released “Underground”, a new song sung by Iggy Pop. It closes the double LP of “Happy Tears”, a career-spanning collection out on 8 January 2027 through Rock Action, the Scottish band’s own label. Matt Sweeney arranged the vocal.
“I’ve always liked Mogwai,” Iggy Pop says in a press release. “The opening of the track reminded me of the crushing modern loneliness. The sung vocal, which was arranged by Matt Sweeney, felt like it was made for someone who is pissed off and doesn’t mind saying so.”
Stuart Braithwaite had already set out in his 2022 book “Spaceships Over Glasgow” what the first three Stooges records did to him: he treated the self-titled album as a bible and watched a VHS of Iggy playing live over and over. The collection comes with a feature-length audio documentary, “Happy Tears: The Story of Mogwai”, in which Braithwaite says: “I never thought we’d be making 11 records, because hardly any bands I liked ever did. We’re doing it being weirdo Scottish instrumental misery mongers.”
The double LP holds thirteen tracks, from “Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home” to “Underground”; the 4xLP and 2xCD editions add thirteen more, with live takes, remixes by Holden and The Other Two, and “Mogwai Fear Satan”. The band’s last album, “The Bad Fire”, came out in 2025.
November’s tour takes in Liège, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Utrecht, Strasbourg, Brussels and two nights in Glasgow. There is no Spanish date.
Text by Marçal Bonastre