Mogwai have announced career-spanning compilation ‘Happy Tears’, which includes a brand new song featuring Iggy Pop. Check it out below.
Set for release on January 8, the upcoming record will track the key songs from across the Scottish band’s 30-year career, and also feature rarities from across their discography – including a previous digital-only single and a special re-working of ‘New Paths To Helicon 1’, titled ‘Brand New Paths to Helicon 1’.
Available on 2xCD and digital download formats, the album will also come on a 4xLP format, which features 13 additional tracks, six of which are previously unreleased, alongside two remixes, two live tracks and three rarities.
Alongside classics from across Mogwai’s career, there is also a brand new song that they have released called ‘Underground’, which sees them join forces with Iggy Pop.
“I’ve always liked Mogwai,” the punk icon shared about the collaboration. “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.”
Stuart Braithwaite also spoke about his long admiration of Iggy Pop in his book Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem And Misspent Youth.
“Hearing the Stooges had been a life-changing moment for me. Their self-titled album was pretty much my bible. It was druggy, dumb and completely primal,” he wrote. “I’d never heard anything quite like it and even though that band had pretty much fallen apart by the time I was born, I grew to love the three Stooges albums as much as any music I’d heard.
“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.”
Like with their debut single ‘Tuner’, which dropped in 1996, ‘Happy Tears’ is also released via the band’s self-owned record label Rock Action Records. Visit here to pre-order, and check out the tracklist below.
Happy Tears tracklistings are:
2xLP
01. ‘Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home’
02. ‘I’m Jim Morrison I’m Dead’
03. ‘Hunted By A Freak’
04. ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’
05. ‘Boltfor’
06. ‘CODY’
07. ‘Brand New Paths to Helicon 1’
08. ‘How To Be A Werewolf’
09. ‘Auto Rock’
10. ‘Remurdered’
11. ‘Ritchie Sacramento’
12. ‘Lion Rumpus’
13. ‘Underground (feat. Iggy Pop)’
4xLP & 2xCD version additional tracks
01. ‘Angels vs Aliens’
02. ‘Die 1 Dislike!’
03. ‘Ether (with The KNDS Fairey Band – Live)’
04. ‘The Sun Smells Too Loud (Holden remix)’
05. ‘If Not Destroyed: True’
06. ‘Full Blast Michael’
07. ‘Hingmy Malmsteen’
08. ‘Dracula Family’
09. ‘Harry Patter’
10. ‘Ritchie Sacramento (Other Two remix)’
11. ‘Nick Drake’
12. ‘Owl Mince’
13. ‘Mogwai Fear Satan (Live)’
As well as the new music, Mogwai have also teamed up with creative studio Cup & Nuzzle for a new feature-length audio documentary.
Titled Happy Tears: The Story Of Mogwai, the doc is narrated by BBC 6 Music presenter Matt Everitt and helps tell the band’s story in their own words for the first time.
“I never thought we’d be making 11 records, because hardly any bands I liked ever did,” Braithwaite said in the film. “We’re doing it being weirdo Scottish instrumental misery mongers. Like, yeah, that’s pretty wild.”
The documentary is released on January 8 and available for pre-order now as part of the ‘Happy Tears’ deluxe bundle as a 2.5-hour audio file or as a standalone download.
Earlier this year, Mogwai also celebrated their anniversary by releasing a new video for debut single ‘Tuner’, marking 30 years of the song and their aforementioned label Rock Action Records.
At that time, they also confirmed a run of European tour dates which will culminate in two homecoming shows at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on November 20-21. You can visit here for tickets.
Mogwai’s 2026 shows are:
NOVEMBER
05 – Le Forum, Liege
06 – Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
08 – Opera House, Copenhagen
09 – Theater des Westens, Berlin
10 – TivoliVredenburg Grote Zaal, Utrecht, Netherlands
11 – La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
13 – Bozar, Brussels
20 – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
21 – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Towards the start of the year, they embarked on a UK tour and also performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall on March 25 with Craven Faults and Annika Kilkenny as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust concerts curated by The Cure‘s Robert Smith.
