Mogwai have announced a new album called Happy Tears, and it comes with a surprise guest: Iggy Pop shows up on a track called “Underground.” The Scottish band are releasing it alongside a documentary about their history.
The compilation spans 31 years of Mogwai’s career, pulling together highlights and rare tracks from across that period. The record is out January 8 through Rock Action. A companion audio documentary, Happy Tears: The Story of Mogwai, tells the band’s story.
The Robot Monologue
“Underground” opens with Pop delivering a spoken-word passage from the perspective of a machine. He sings:
“I am a robot/And I am unhappy/I have been designed/To make money/But I want to make love.”
He then moves through a series of seemingly unrelated topics: blowjobs, shrewd producers, the Rolling Stones, and how it’s “great to be a nepo kid.”
Braithwaite’s Long Love
Stuart Braithwaite, the band’s guitarist, has been open about his admiration for Iggy Pop for years. In his 2022 memoir Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth, he wrote about hearing the Stooges for the first time.
“Hearing the Stooges had been a life-changing moment for me,” he wrote. “I had a VHS video of Iggy playing live and I watched it over and over. His performance was unlike anything or anyone I’d seen before. The spectacle was great but it was his voice and songs that really captured me.”
What Pop Said About the Track
Pop himself weighed in on the collaboration. “I’ve always liked Mogwai,” he wrote in a statement. “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.”
Matt Sweeney arranged the sung vocal portion of the track.
The Compilation Tracks
The album is split across two sides. The first half runs from “Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home” to “Lion Rumpus,” including fan favourites like “Boltfor,” “CODY,” and “Remurdered.”
The second side picks up with “Angels vs Aliens” and runs through “Owl Mince.” It includes a live version of “Ether” featuring The KNDS Fairey Band, a Holden remix of “The Sun Smells Too Loud,” and two versions of “Ritchie Sacramento.”
Here’s the full running order:
- “Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home”
- “I’m Jim Morrison I’m Dead”
- “Hunted By A Freak”
- “Take Me Somewhere Nice”
- “Boltfor”
- “CODY”
- “Brand New Paths to Helicon 1”
- “How To Be A Werewolf”
- “Auto Rock”
- “Remurdered”
- “Ritchie Sacramento”
- “Lion Rumpus”
- “Underground (feat. Iggy Pop)”
The Live Material
The second side leans heavily on live and remixed material. Here’s a quick look at what’s included:
| Track | Format |
|---|---|
| “Ether (with The KNDS Fairey Band – Live)” | Live |
| “The Sun Smells Too Loud (Holden remix)” | Remix |
| “Ritchie Sacramento (Other Two remix)” | Remix |
| “Mogwai Fear Satan (Live)” | Live |
Why This Works
The Iggy Pop track is the clear standout here. It’s a bold move for a band that has built its reputation on slow-burning instrumental builds and atmospheric tension. Bringing in a living rock legend to sing about being a robot who wants love instead of money is a gamble that pays off.
The track is a reminder that Mogwai aren’t just a band of instrumentalists. They can still pull off something as weird and compelling as a robot’s complaint about capitalism.
The documentary, meanwhile, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the band got to where they are today. For longtime fans, it’s likely to be essential listening.
Final Word
“Underground” is a surreal highlight on a compilation that spans three decades of Mogwai. It’s a bold, funny, and strangely moving track that shows the band hasn’t lost its willingness to experiment.
The Iggy Pop appearance is the kind of thing that only Mogwai could pull off.
The album is out January 8.
Source material: “Mogwai Recruit Iggy Pop for New Song “Underground”,” Pitchfork.
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