Mongrel released their first album Better Than Heavy on 7 March 2009. The band have announced they will play a show at London's Boston Arms on 5 November, with a four-track digital EP due for release the same day.[2][needs update]
For the album, McClure stated "We had Saul Williams come in and do a thing on it and hopefully M.I.A. is going to do something and maybe Pete Doherty. It's got a good flavour... We're really taking a few people to task, kind of like we're Public Enemy or something."[3] In an interview with The Guardian, McClure also expressed a desire to record in Venezuela and work with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez for the band's second album.[4]
In 2011 McClure was asked if there were plans to release anymore music he said Mongrel was a side project and a one off.[5]
Better Than Heavy was released on Saturday 7 March 2009 free in The Independent newspaper. It was the first time a British band had given their début album away free with a national newspaper on release.[6] The full release, 23 March 2009, contains two CDs, Disc 2 is a reworked version of "Better Than Heavy" by Adrian Sherwood at On-U Sound Studios, tracks are re-titled Dub versions.
