Best of collections are funny things – often they’re just money makers that creep in during the last months of the year, and they seem particularly anachronistic at a time when anyone can just collate their own compilations via streaming services. But, if care is taken with the curation and presentation of the collection, and some rarities are dropped in alongside the more familiar material, there is still a place for compilation albums.
Scotland’s most famous post rock practitioners Mogwai have turned 20 and mark this milestone with the extensive, all-encompassing Central Belters. For a largely instrumental band that have only ever produced one vaguely poppy song (last year’s Teenage Exorcists), they sure know how to pull out the punchiest work from their albums. They also clearly know when something is worth including on an album (hence their remarkably consistent back catalogue of studio albums), but also when it isn’t.
The last third of the 34-track Central Belters is the section comprising non-album and previously unreleased obscurities, and it doesn’t quite stand up to the towering quality of the first two discs. However, the furious, cathartic closing track My Father My King is well worth sticking around for. This compilation also allows us to take stock of how great these guys have been at churning out classic song titles – where else could you find a collection with songs called I Know You Are But What Am I?, I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead, and How To Be A Werewolf?
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
