Young Team

“Cause music is bigger than words and wider than pictures.” This was my submission, so it’s probably a bit obvious that I’m giving it five stars. If you can please listen to this album as it’s meant to be heard: loud as fuck. Here is my reasoning behind why I submitted this album: I wanted my choice to be a Scottish band, and a band that didn’t have any albums on the original list. I chose Mogwai because I think post-rock is a little underrepresented on the original list. We had Sigur Rós, Tortoise, and Slint, but it feels like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor are obvious omissions. Young Team isn’t even my favorite Mogwai album; I would rank Come On Die Young and Happy Songs for Happy People above it. However, I think it’s their most important album, being their debut and their introduction to their quiet-loud dynamics and mesmerizing guitars. Hence, in my opinion it’s deserving of the list. The standout song from this album for me is “Mogwai Fear Satan,” probably their most epic song. Also, “Like Herod” needs a special mention. If you enjoyed this, please check out the rest of their music. Clearly, this is a biased view, but I don’t think they have a bad album.

I saw Mogwai about 10 years ago, and it was the loudest concert I've ever been to. Extremely impressive band, I was in need of a reminder. Thank you for submitting this to the list!

I enjoyed this music, although during “Like Herod”, a rather loud and aggressive song, the brining bag on my turkey sprung a leak as I was lifting it and brine sprayed all over my kitchen while I frantically ran around searching for a means to stop the fountain of raw turkey liquid. “Like Herod” was playing loudly as I kept screaming at Siri to stop the music. Other than that, great!

A sibling post-rock album to GY!BE's F♯A♯∞, Mogwai Young Team is the urban before the decay. Massive buildings of light and activity, streets of moving masses, the life of a city that never sleeps. Bigger than any one of us, Young Team captures a tower of sound and delivers it like a sonic freight train. But deep within, there's a certain beauty to this album. Real human connection, amidst the buzzing and chaos, displaying raw emotion in the clearing. Perhaps out of a restless need for closure, Mogwai finishes on a insurmountable level of noise and feedback that proves to be one of the finest post-rock songs in the entire genre. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: I would like to see other post-rock heavy hitters on the list before considering this one (Swans, GY!BE, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock), but otherwise my bias is too strong to not add it to the list.

It's about the fourth best Mogwai album. But it'd get five stars for Like Herod alone. Can't believe this is the first time Mogwai has come up. Feel like spending the next few years redoing all 1001 plus albums to add a few more!

I'm loving this Postrock revolution here at 1001. Mogwai are one of my faves and although this isn't my favourite of theirs it'll do. There's something about the genre that expresses things beyond words. Visionary.

Another example for me of how you listen matters. I had hear of them before and listened to this record probably 3 or 4 years ago and thought - meh. Well, at that time I would have most likely listened to it through my little Bluetooth bose speaker. This time I made sure to listen to it through my main system. Wow. What a difference. This time it grabbed me from the opening right through the final note. I was blown away by the dynamics in this record. The distance between the lows and the highs, the soundstage the imaging. Wow. Just wow. And the songs grabbed me and I found myself waiting for what was coming next. My wife did say and one point for the upstairs “what the heck is that noise”. I think that’s the sign of a different and interesting sound in a record. Anyway, all this to say, listen to this on the best system you have at your disposal. And my system isn’t amazing by any stretch but it is able to be able to pick out the above. I’d love to hear this on a real audiophile grade system (whatever that is).

Fantastic album. It has some regular heavy post rock, some call intermezzo's and some more experimental songs. Amazing debut

A wonderful album, with moving instrumentals and engaging lyrics (or sampled conversations) when they used them. Lovely to hear Aidan Moffat show up, and talking Scots. I never realised until I heard "R U Still in 2 It" that I hadn't heard the word 'pictures' (to mean movies / cinema) in a song. It's these wee moments that make an album, and remind me why I give Scottish bands bonus points. Except I can't in this case, cos they are already getting five stars!

Great stuff, falls along the ranks of “stuff I might have underrated before I learned to like Radiohead,” which tbf is basically post-rock in a nutshell

In 1999, I almost crashed my car when the loud bit of "Like Herod" kicked in. Such a major omission from the original list and still so startlingly brilliant.

It was a bit of a roller coaster ride for me between "this is very nice." and "jane! stop this crazy thing!".

Melancholic, introspective, and very Scottish. Young Team is a quite bleak post-rock album that gets real damn loud at times, but there are also moments where these shimmering guitars break through the fog and everything seems wonderful I also wanted to share this incredible line from the album’s wikipedia page: The band took up pseudonyms for the liner notes on the album… John Cummings took the nickname Cpt. Meat after his obsession for eating chops

A classic 👏 Well deserving of a spot on this list with how synonymous Mogwai is with post rock

Good jam band vibes that sometimes go REAL HARD. A great time.

Really good with headphones!

Some really cool songs here that I want to revisit. “With portfolio” gave me a headache though. Very cool album

Rating: 6/10

I've known of these guys for a long time but never heard them. They're one of those groups that enjoys crossover appeal with card-carrying, no-nonsense metalheads and tbh that's always turned me off haha. From what I understand, it's going to be industrial/electronic sort of stuff, maybe like skinny puppy (also popular with the no-fun metal crowd). Ok it's post rock. It's... alright, I guess? I struggle to tell good from bad from average in this genre. It all does the same thing to my ears. But it's not a bad thing by any means. Just can't hold my interest - fine for a once off, though. Bit of jingle jangle, drawn out songs, intentional dynamics, etc. 3/5.

When I was living in France there was this guy at work, Xavier... Mogwai was his favorite band. Xavier was a nice dude. Anyway, I'll give it 3 stars because you brought back some memories... I'm not gay, shut up...

I was pleased with the music... Made for good drive time

I'm not really a big fan of songs that start off with a sample from TV or something similar, like a telephone call. Even with Pink Floyd's Young Lust, they wait until the end. Overall, it's difficult to keep my attention to this album. I get a great drum riff, followed by a dishwasher?

So I complained to some of my friends that this album is too much endless droning for my tastes. One of them mentioned that this is why she doesn't enjoy TOOL. I really liked them when I was younger so I decided to relisten to some of their greatest hits. Man that washed this right out of my brain. 2/5 on the album since it's not like offensive to my ears but absolutely nothing to latch onto, but thanks for reminding me that TOOL rocks i guess?

One of those albums where you have to check if your Bluetooth earphones are connected properly after 30 seconds because nothing has happened yet. Sure it’s got “dynamics” but the downs are boring and the ups are stressful.

"Cause this music can put a human being in a trance-like state and deprive it for the sneaking feeling of existing. 'Cause music is bigger than words and wider than pictures. If someone said that Mogwai are the stars, I would not object. If the stars had a sound, it would sound like this. The punishment for these solemn words can be hard. Can blood boil like this at the sound of a noisy tape that I've heard? I know one thing. On Saturday, the sky will crumble together (or something) with a huge bang to fit into the cave." ---- What's also great about that pick is that the most touching and most personal review ever written about it is actually uttered in the very first seconds of the album, ha ha. I could leave it at that, I guess. But this record is so important that I'm gonna add quite a few extra words of my own... By this point, you can probably guess I've been fan of Mogwai for a long time. Yet as "subjective" as what I'm about to say is, I seriously think you don't need to be a fan to recognize how frigging *pivotal* this album is -- not only for a post-rock genre criminally ignored by Dimery in his book, but also for the whole rock idiom in general. In the (mostly instrumental) tracklist of this album you have three weird-sounding piano-laden interludes I'm not going to touch upon, because you need to be in love with the rest to dig them during the course of the tracklist. But I will say a few things for each of the main compositions. "Yes, I Am a Long Way from Home" thus starts with a spoken-word introduction, followed by an intricate bass riff that feels both sullen and hopeful somehow. The heart soars here... What is about to happen? Well, what happens is music evoking the barren highlands of Scotland under clouds -- a long way from home indeed for quite a few listeners. A poised yet still suspenseful two-note motif on guitars keeps you on your toes as the composition displays its delicate canvas for your ears. Pretty guitar harmonics and effect-laden waves take over for a while, then the bass returns and builds up to waves of distorted guitars taking flight into the grey skies -- waves rolling and crashing over your head, subtly adding layers one after another, in a telluric sound geology aptly pointing towards the idea of travelling the Earth, when you find yourself hiking towards a hilltop to eventually behold and gape at a natural landscape from there -- one you didn't imagine existed two minutes before. Next is "Like Herod", showing Mogwai doing a trick they often pulled off in the first era of their long career: take a very simple idea to its most extreme execution, and in the process, record a track that ends up becoming a platonic ideal for a whole genre. The main idea for "Like Herod" is to translate the "jumpscare" of a horror film into music. Everything is restrained and contained at first. The bassline is fully ominous this time around, the guitar arpeggios are claustrophobic... Everything goes even quieter for a while... until... BANG! A "screamer" blasts its way into your speakers!!! Repetitive, hypnotic -- "ugly", even -- that relentless guitar bend is like the evil-eyed creature creeping under your bed, or the one hidden in your cupboard. Its dark stare peers into your soul for most of the eleven minutes of this composition. "There be monsters", said the old medieval maps of the world about unknown territories. I think we've found one here... After the terror of "Like Herod", "Katrien" initially returns to more tranquil and welcoming shores. It's a cousin of the opening track, yet becoming more animated and more unsettled as the music moves forward. Its last mid-tempo surge on the drums even goes to a somewhat frantic pace, suggesting the mental image of escapees from a prison suddenly running for their lives... until a very dramatic key change for the last strummed chord ends the whole thing on a cliffhanger! Cinematic as fuck. And speaking of cinematic, "Tracy" is an absolute gem that could transcend any scene shot for a film. There's no "loud" here, it's all "quiet". And yet Mogwai being the masters of compositional dynamics that they are, the whole song feels like a soundtrack made to support elegiac cinematography taking its sweet time to document natural cycles under a twilight sky. Spatial echoes of guitar effects hover above a tender bassline, soon followed by somewhat disquieted drums stumbling upon jazzy fills. Then a glockenspiel motif double-tracks a delicate and thoughtful guitar lick -- one of the prettiest things ever heard in a post-rock album. More sustained waves of guitar delay finally end the song on most sublime notes, just as a prank call goes about in the background, where the caller makes up a story about one of the band members punching another in the face (every Mogwai fan knows the band has a very cheeky sense of humour behind the scenes, and here's a clear instance of it in this skit). The thing is, you really want to believe Dominic and Stuart have had a fight and the band went into a major crisis here, so persuasive and "dramatic" the music is. "Dramatic" might be too strong a word to qualify "Tracy" though, even if the song is among my ten favorite Mogwai tracks ever... "Meditative" and "immanent" are more like it. Like an out-of-body experience... On to another key track now. About this one, "Summer", let's just start by pointing out that Stuart Braithwaite has had very harsh retrospective words about the "Priority Version" of this particular song as found in *Young Team*. True, maybe the original version released as a single and in the *Ten Rapid* compilation is indeed superior and more subtly pulled off... That being said, "Summer" is by itself a tune strong enough to survive the more distorted treatment and more linear "reorganizing" this second version went through. What's amazing about Mogwai as an instrumental act is that they clearly have a knack for catchy choruses at times, even without singers to put words into them. And the one "chorus" of "Summer" is indeed a very important milestone for the Scottish band, and a template for many great things to come. So I'm glad it found its way into this debut, even in this *slightly* lesser version... "R U Still Into It" is a change of pace because there's finally a real vocalist taking center stage towards the end of the album -- here Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat, going into his sullen spoken-word routine. Mogwai do an excellent job providing impressionistic chorus-laden guitar touches to support Moffat's melancholy, oscillating between careful optimism and bitter cynicism during the course of those disillusioned lyrics. The music is actually very close to the one of Arab Strap -- it doesn't lead to revelatory moments, it just conveys the dredge of everyday life and the lack of perspective and personal growth in a relationship. That final piano lick feels fateful, even. And now, as I'm writing the last words of this overlong review -- not bothering about transitions between the songs, contrary to what the album does -- the last and most "essential" track from this album has just started playing in my headphones. Yes, this review has been written in "real time" so to speak, every paragraph stopping at the exact moment each main composition ended. And right now, as I'm typing those words, I'm listening to "Mogwai Fear Satan"'s hypnotic three-note ascending motif circling again and again in my ears, and it is sending the *exact same shivers down my spine* as the ones I felt almost thirty years ago, when I first listened to this masterpiece concluding this debut. Inexhaustible track, three decades in. Yes, this song is the ultimate Mogwai song, enough said -- not only is it filled with gorgeous arrangements and harmonies (that dreamy flute! those subtle guitar flourishes!) wallowing around its crystal-clear, simple-as-hell compositional core, but this mythical cut also sums up the sheer power of a whole genre when going into its quiet - loud - quiet mode. I remember watching the band play that legendary composition live once, in one of the concerts of theirs I've had the chance to attend. When the loud part hit again, it felt like a nuclear blast! I swear I could have seen the wave of sound going slow-motion through the crowd in front of me until it finally hit me in the face as well. It was like watching those "explosion bubbles" in the Akira manga, or in its anime adaptation. Awe, joy, terror and wonder all at once. And a whole mental landscape opens up thanks to the mesmerizing repetitions gracing this jewel from start to finish. Hard to say if this landscape is on Earth or from another planet... But said landscape feels as vast an astral plane as one can imagine in their mind's eye. This here is the sort of music that can fuel your imagination or heighten your perceptions tenfold. Not only does it speak to the soul, but it also tightens your heart and grips your senses. If the stars had a sound, it would sound like this indeed. As said elsewhere, *Young Team* might not even be the best Mogwai LP -- and fans will probably have a hard time agreeing which one is given how consistent their discography is overall. Personally, I hesitate between *Rock Action*, *Happy Songs For Happy People*, *Mr. Beast*, *The Hawk Is Howling*, and *Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will*, all of them profiting from the addition of fifth member Barry Burns -- not present on this debut apart from a "reversed" vocal skit, but later adding his own guitar, vocal and keys/piano skills to the formula. Yet even if some other Mogwai albums are "objectively" superior, "Young Team" was the band's debut, and it automatically gains extra points because of the aesthetical shock it ignited for a whole generation of rock fans at the time -- and also because of "Mogwai Fear Satan", all by itself. Before this album, many strands of experimental stuff labelled as "post-rock" already existed (strands best represented by Slint, Labradford or Tortoise, each creating very different sorts of music). Yet none of those strands were using the clear and straightforward dynamics Mogwai have used for decades now -- which also proved so incredibly influential for dozens and dozens of other acts later on. Most essential addition to the list, then, thank you. Mogwai has a rightful place among the many "young teams" that have had an undeniable impact in music history. And I'm so glad that the users list is finally giving this place to them. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 77 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 94 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 188 ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

This was pretty cool. Reminded me a bit of that band whose music was used in the show Friday Night Lights, Explosions in the Sky I think they were called. 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

Yes, more of this please.

This is pretty interesting and I can’t think of a comparable. Mostly instrumental rock telling a story with great use of sudden dynamic shifts and long periods of groove. Keeps you with it

Great post-rock debut album with fantastic soundscapes.

Pretty interesting release. At first it seems a bit aimless with Long Way from Home, but Like Herod starts to kick it up several notches by delivering an energy and groove that immediately works. Though there is some filler material, there's enough that works, exploring different tempos and energy levels, but still drives a great vibe (Katrien, Tracy and Mogwai Fear Satan are all strong). Enjoyed!

Gorgeous post-rock. Loses me around "With Portfolio", which was so noisy that it forced me to remove my earbuds until it passed. The album never quite recovers from there, but I enjoyed it enough to probably check out the other material from these guys. Favorite tracks: "Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home", "Mogwai Fear Satan"

Why did no one tell me this is what Mogwai sound like

Not bad. Some good sound

Pretty damn good

Rumblingly, forebodingly dark – mostly  in a good and contemplative way – holds up well.

Jam. not a lot of words, which is nice, and good vocal variety (flute, etc). Not really what I reach for first, but it's growing on me. Damn, they had to end with a flute song. +1 star for that.

Background music. It's pleasingly noodly, although I can't imagine anyone actually being engaged by it.

Quite enjoyable for post-rock instrumentals, which can often go off the rails. But Mogwai's sound is dynamic and approachable, making them a bit of a standard-bearer and gateway to the genre. Apparently they have strayed from that over the years, but here at their start they are tight and terrific.

No lyrics :( Could have been so great if they were screaming unintelligibly. Instead it’s over an hour of really good songwriting, production, and instrumentation. 4/5

Post-rock, noise rock, instrumental rock.

Careens around joyfully but with method to the madness. Enjoyed the pretty parts and the loud energetic parts and not so much the talky parts.

I don't know how I missed Mogwai coming up but hot damn this was great. 4/5

It was kinda fun putting this on with no context and going from “what the hell is this?” to “Oh never mind this is actually awesome” as the tracks went on. I’ve been meaning to get into more post rock beside GSY!BE so this was a great addition in my book.

Mogwai is not a fast-food dish. I've tried for years to actually 'get' this, and I still can't fully embrace it. I WANT to love this band, and listening to the fantastic closing track of this album (Mogwai Fear Satan) I again wonder why many of their other songs do not have the same effect on me. I have yet to find the key that fully unlocks Mogwai for me. I will keep trying.

didn't really do it for me

Interesting

I've danced around the periphery of this band for some time as a casual fan of prog, but hadn't given one of their LPs a full listen. This was a mostly fun ride, and at times felt almost theatrical which made for a fun listen. My personal preference would've been to cut down on some of the quieter interludes that bulk up the track runtimes – this band excels at intense technical passages, and it felt those only got 40% of the limelight relative to the less-novel quiet bits.

This didn't do a lot for me. A lot of electronic noise drone ambient meandering, a lot of vocals in the "mumbling through a bad intercom" vein (and even some real stale tricks like running them backwards). I didn't hate it but I wouldn't seek more.

Enjoyed this. Strategic uses of tension, noise and quiet, all to brilliant effect. I did find myself wishing for a good vocal on some of the songs, but that's a minor critique. Fave Songs: Summer (Priority Version), Yes! I Am a Long Way from Home, Tracy, Like Herod, A Cheery Wave from Stranded Youngsters

Ágætt

So, Mogwai are a post-rock band that makes lengthy guitar-based instrumental pieces. Huh. I had assumed they were another 90s indie band. This is more interesting than I had assumed, but not really my thing. That said, it has lovely textures. Rating: 2.5 Playlist track: Mogwai Fear Satan Date listened: 29/11/24

Shoegaze ambient post rock type stuff. Not bad.

This mostly hard rock instrumental album had an interesting playing style and mood overall. Very laid back but also a bit aggressive with the distorted guitars. Some songs dragged a bit and it. It was a pretty cool album to hear but not sure how much I’d revisit it. 5.9/10

This one made no impression either way on me

Another band I've never heard of although funnily enough I saw an ad for Rough Trade doing a listening party for a new album of theirs so they still are active. Unsurprisingly this follows my common complaint of being too long. For long drawn out songs, they just weren't interesting enough for me to care. I'd say cut 20 minutes and you'd have a nice solid album. The long drawn out songs just felt tiring. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should have this been included on the original list? Sure why not. Replace some 90s mediocrity with this and I wouldn't complain. At least this band has some impact on music.

Very cool atmospheric rock vibes. I dig it.

I'm a fairly casual Mogwai fan. It's not my favourite of theirs.

Instrumentals were cool, expressive, groovy, but repetitive.

Mogwai never really crossed my radar except for knowing their name from OTF lore down the years, and I've not really been into post-rock, so I didn't really know what to expect from Young Team, and I guess it's a mixed bag. I dig the huge loud sound and the blend of gentler, quieter moments to make those loud explosions really resonate are cool, but the instrumental nature/very very minimalist vocals don't particularly work for me at the end of it all. It's all a bit too long as well, I like large chunks of Herod and Mogwai Fear Satan but there's no reason for both tracks to be 10+ minutes in length, though the latter is the best track overall and is absolutely fucking thunderous at its best moments, and I adore that. I'll give it a 3/5 because, like I say, some of it really delivers what I enjoy, but it leaves a few boxes unticked.

Mogwai is fine, but they're my least favorite of the "big 90s post-rock" bands. Not really sure why. Probably because they haven't perfected that buildup->payoff formula as well as the others. Some songs are way too much buildup for not enough payoff. Most notably "Mogwai Fear Satan" which barely goes anywhere despite being 16 minutes long. Still enjoyable though, and I definitely agree that the list needed more post-rock.

May 3, 2025 HL: “Mogwai Fear Satan”, “Yes!”, “Tracy” The spoken word about making up a ‘bit of a sketch’ reminded me of the Limmy Show. Probably just that Glasgow accent. It has a beautiful finale, the question that I won’t quite be able to answer this afternoon is: “Was the journey worth it?” It was definitely heavier and noisier than I expected, but I guarantee there will be times where I’m looking for that dense atmosphere. Just doesn’t happen to be today

Well, they know how to play a guitar, right? I enjoyed it, but much more as background music rather than something special.

Slow, melancholic, adjective nr.3. Listened to it loud as fuck as instructed. This is an album that requires a certain mindset in order to fully immerse yourself in it. With post-rock projects like this I feel the usual objective is to pack every thought and feeling you can possibly have inside of your head, let it run wild, create pressure and absolutely get lost in it all to the point that it's almost a jumpscare when it finally ends. This didn't achieve that for me. it was enjoyable tho

Why did they decide to record the vocals in another room? I just really don't understand this modern Scottish music.....it just doesn't translate on this side of the pond.... Admittedly upon second playthrough it started to make a bit more sense. Favorite songs: Mogwai Fear Satan, King Herod, Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home Least favorite songs: With Portfolio 3/5

I kind of like this in a mood way. However ultimately it's just four bar repeats with noodling so I'm not sure it's moving music on at all.

young team, old noise

The sound is good, but I must admit all of the songs basically are extended interludes that vary between quite and wall-of-sound loud. 5/10

I had heard of Mogwai through reference to Gremlins but had never listened to them. I'm actually surprised that it was just music, which is fine but I'm disappointed that there are no vocals making the music just an ambient background while I was doing my activities. It doesn't leave me with a great "taste" for what I had known about them.

Average

Atmospheric instrumentals. This is not my thing.

Almost felt like listening to a distorted ham radio and I wasn't the biggest fan of that.

A little too long with too little substance

Música un tanto experimental y de ambiente un tanto relajado. En su mayor parte, instrumental. Estilo de sonido continuo con alguna estridencia, que no desentona del todo. No me ha producido un gran descubrimiento.

Yea I don't get this band and why they are critical darlings. Is it the dynamism?

This was kinda ass, but I've heard worse.

Meh-g-why?

Post-rock, noise rock, instrumental rock. Ruido. Y lo que no es ruido es un rollo. Un 1.

Post-rock, noise rock, instrumental rock. Ruido. Y lo que no es ruido es un rollo. Un 1.

It sounded like an instrumental backing track for System of a Down played on a slow speed. That’s my snarky critique. I WANT to like post-rock and occasionally do, but when multiple tracks consist of static-filled phone call conversations and feedback-filled guitar loops, then I don’t. It’s too bad - I’d heard great things about Mogwai. Maybe this isn’t the Mogwai album for me?