Claude says:Mogwai's second album came out in 1999, recorded in three weeks at Tarbox Road Studios with Dave Fridmann, aiming for something sparser than their debut — slow, drum-driven tracks with tense crescendos and the occasional ambient stretch before "Christmas Steps" kicks back into their distortion-heavy mode. You got into it in 2007, eight years after release, and wore it out that spring before stepping away for long stretches. "Cody" and "Helps Both Ways" still pull you back in — the former for that uncharacteristically distinct melody and slide guitar, the latter maybe for the oddball Madden commentary layered underneath.