"Despite the multifarious sounds and orchestral arrangements, the music on 'Happy Songs For Happy People' feels easy, due to Mogwai's acute grasp of melody. Unlike many of their post-rock contemporaries, their poised compositions are capable of attracting more than a handful of post-rock aficionados. Just don't expect them to be surging up the singles chart any time soon. They're much too good for that."

Drowned in Sound

"This is new, measured and condensed Mogwai, where a song formerly set for 8 minutes has been concertinaed into three-and-a-half, like one bit hit of psychotropics rather than a drip feed of morphine. The intensity remains the same, the ferocity equally unequalled, but it's created through deft use of multi-instrumentation and a high-developed appreciation of scope and impact rather than a reliance on those Fender Blender guitar pedals and a post-Tap Marshall amps that goes up to 12."

Cool Noise

"...Mogwai manage to create music that has the same emotional impact and melodic yearnings as some of the great guitar-based songsmiths such as Sonic Youth."

Umbrella Music

"On only three tracks (the slow-build-and-release "Ratts of the Capital", "Stop Coming to My House", and "Killing All the Flies") do they ever really let fly (albeit briefly) with some heavy guitar intensity. The rest of the record is comprised of blissed-out, mellow and oceanic soundscapes, soft and dark and a little scary."

Junk Media

"In actuality, time spent identifying a standout track among this nine-song collection is futile. Happy Songs for Happy People is a great record due in no small part to its cohesion, its uninterrupted flow"

NME

"It's often complex, but this isn't over-studied music that appeals only to people with a PhD in Beards. Mogwai aren't the sort of band to harp on about how they achieved a neat atonal effect by restringing their guitars with Jim O'Rourke's pubic hair."