Mogwai team up with Iggy Pop on ‘Underground’, decades after sampling his voice on Come On Die Young.
Mogwai have teamed up with Iggy Pop for their new single “Underground”, nearly three decades after the punk icon’s voice first appeared on one of the Scottish band’s records.
The track arrives ahead of Happy Tears, a career-spanning Mogwai collection set for release on January 8th, 2027 through the band’s Rock Action Records label. The release brings together music from across their catalogue alongside new material, rarities, remixes and live recordings.
The collaboration also brings Mogwai’s relationship with Pop full circle.
The opening track of their 1999 album Come On Die Young, “Punk Rock:”, begins with a sample of Pop discussing punk rock during a 1977 CBC interview with broadcaster Peter Gzowski. Mogwai’s own retrospective notes for the album confirm the sample, while Stuart Braithwaite later recalled its origin and noted that Pop had gone on to play Mogwai’s “Take Me Somewhere Nice” on his BBC radio show.
This time, Pop is very much part of the song itself.
On “Underground”, he delivers vocals from the perspective of an unhappy robot designed to make money but longing for something more human, before the lyrics veer through celebrity culture, the music business and “nepo kid” territory.
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Pop has described the opening of the song as evoking modern loneliness and said the sung vocal was arranged by Matt Sweeney.
Happy Tears arrives as Mogwai celebrate 30 years since debut single “Tuner” was released in 1996, alongside three decades of Rock Action Records.
The standard 13-track collection includes songs spanning the band’s career, including “Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home”, “Take Me Somewhere Nice”, “Auto Rock”, “Ritchie Sacramento” and “Lion Rumpus”.
It also features “Brand New Paths to Helicon 1”, a new version of early Mogwai favourite “New Paths to Helicon 1” featuring the Budapest Art Orchestra and orchestrated by Adam Wiltzie of A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Stars of the Lid.
Expanded four-LP and two-CD editions add another 13 tracks drawn from rarities, remixes, live recordings and previously unreleased material.
The retrospective will also be accompanied by Happy Tears: The Story of Mogwai, a digital audio documentary included with selected deluxe bundles and also available separately.
The announcement follows Mogwai’s Australian return earlier this year as part of their 30th-anniversary touring, including shows at the Sydney Opera House on May 23rd, Melbourne’s Forum on May 25th and QPAC’s Glasshouse Theatre in Brisbane on May 27th.
Happy Tears is out January 8th, 2027 through Rock Action Records. “Underground” is available now.
