Mogwai’s tenth album in nearly a quarter of a century, “As the Love Continues,” encapsulates all the elements of their unfolding brand of music, from post-rock, bass-heavy walls of sound, through tinkly keyboard contrasts, to melodic instrumental wig-outs. If it doesn’t contain the grandeur of a couple of the band’s earliest classics, there is a pleasing sense of variety and craftsmanship that pervades As the Love Continues, and the album’s overall impact is one of a satisfying journey. Moods of grace and grandeur and sadness seem especially fitting in a world still stifled by lockdowns. Highlights include the panoramic, six-minute “Midnight Fit,” with its bursting strings; the opening “To the Bin My Friend, We Vacate the Earth,” unfurling into booming majesty; the surprisingly cheesy but brilliantly choreographed “Supposedly, We Were Nightmares”; and “Dry Fantasy” which somehow grafts that bass-loaded Mogwai grandeur onto a Tangerine Dream melody. As the Love Continues is, perhaps unexpectedly, perhaps foretold, a career highlight.
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