Mogwai Bring Iggy Pop Into Their World On New Track ‘Underground’

Nearly three decades after Mogwai used Iggy Pop’s voice on one of their best-known early records, the two have finally made a song together.

Mogwai Bring Iggy Pop Into Their World On New Track ‘Underground’
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‘Underground’ is a brand-new Mogwai track featuring Iggy Pop, released on 30 September alongside the announcement of Happy Tears, a career-spanning compilation celebrating 30 years of the Scottish band. The collection will be released on 8 January 2027 through Rock Action Records.

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Listen to Mogwai featuring Iggy Pop — Underground on Spotify on Spotify

The connection between the two goes back to 1999. Mogwai used excerpts from a 1977 CBC interview with Pop on ‘Punk Rock’, the opening track of Come On Die Young. On ‘Underground’, however, Pop isn’t being sampled. He’s right in the middle of the song, supplying the vocal for a character who describes himself as an unhappy robot designed to make money.

It’s an unusually direct piece of Mogwai. The track has a harder, more immediate rhythm than the band’s traditionally expansive instrumental work, while Pop’s delivery gives it a deliberately strange edge. The vocal was arranged by Matt Sweeney, who Pop specifically praised when discussing the collaboration.

“I’ve always liked Mogwai,” Pop said of the track, adding that its opening reminded him of “the crushing modern loneliness”.

For Stuart Braithwaite, the collaboration also closes a particularly long musical loop. In his memoir Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth, he described The Stooges as a formative influence and recalled repeatedly watching footage of Pop performing live.

Happy Tears brings together tracks from across Mogwai’s catalogue alongside rarities and previously unreleased recordings. It also includes ‘Brand New Paths To Helicon 1’, a new reworking of ‘New Paths To Helicon 1’ featuring the Budapest Art Orchestra, with orchestration by Adam Wiltzie.

The expanded editions add 13 further tracks, including six previously unreleased recordings, two remixes, two live tracks and three rarities. The compilation will be available on 2LP, 4LP, 2CD and digital formats.

Happy Tears — 2xLP

  • 1. ‘Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home’
  • 2. ‘I’m Jim Morrison I’m Dead’
  • 3. ‘Hunted By A Freak’
  • 4. ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’
  • 5. ‘Boltfor’
  • 6. ‘CODY’
  • 7. ‘Brand New Paths to Helicon 1’
  • 8. ‘How To Be A Werewolf’
  • 9. ‘Auto Rock’
  • 10. ‘Remurdered’
  • 11. ‘Ritchie Sacramento’
  • 12. ‘Lion Rumpus’
  • 13. ‘Underground (feat. Iggy Pop)’

4xLP & 2CD — Additional Tracks

  • 1. ‘Angels vs Aliens’
  • 2. ‘Die 1 Dislike!’
  • 3. ‘Ether (with The KNDS Fairey Band – Live)’
  • 4. ‘The Sun Smells Too Loud (Holden Remix)’
  • 5. ‘If Not Destroyed: True’
  • 6. ‘Full Blast Michael’
  • 7. ‘Hingmy Malmsteen’
  • 8. ‘Dracula Family’
  • 9. ‘Harry Patter’
  • 10. ‘Ritchie Sacramento (Other Two Remix)’
  • 11. ‘Nick Drake’
  • 12. ‘Owl Mince’
  • 13. ‘Mogwai Fear Satan (Live)’

Alongside the music, Mogwai have also announced Happy Tears: The Story Of Mogwai, a 2.5-hour audio documentary telling the band’s story through their own words. It will also be released on 8 January.

Happy Tears is released 8 January 2027 via Rock Action Records.

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