Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
< author: james > |
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank Label: Epic |
I’m rather convinced Modest Mouse can never succeed with the majority of their core fanbase ever again. To remake The Lonesome Crowded West or The Moon and Antarctica would be pointless; to diverge from them would be sacreligious. And maybe that’s why they’re making music “more accessible;” the indie eleite have already made up their minds and closed the door. We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank leaked weaks ago, and I’ve heard almost nothing and negativity from the old school fans, but I just can’t quite figure it out. I will certainly concede that Good News… was not a fantastic album, but We Were Dead… is really, really good. Close to great, even.
The constant recent complaint that Modest Mouse only make “pop records” anymore is a bit ridiculous. For one, no matter how gritty some of their songs were, their songs have always been based on a pop foundation. Secondly, though there certainly have been more “hits” on the last two releases (”Dashboard” has to be one of the catchiest pop songs since Talking Heads), no way could songs as rough as “March Into the Sea” and “Parting of the Sensory” make it anywhere near the airwaves. Brock still has the grit and the spit and the rasp to make the angry, atonal, rough numbers that have always worked their way into their records.
In fact, if the increased poppiness comes from anywhere here it’s from newest member Johnny Marr (guitarist for the Smiths), whose distinct catchy syncopated guitar picking marries with Brock’s style fantastically (this is especially evident on songs such as “Dashboard,” and “Florida,”). I could have picked no better addition to Modest Mouse than Marr, a man arguably responsible for the indie-pop genre as it stands today.
The complainers can say what they want; I love this record. The average songs are on par with Good News…’s best song (”The View”) and the best songs are new and full and layered and dark and catchy and marvelous (”March Into The Sea,” “Parting of the Sensory,” and “Spitting Venom”). The album is referential all the way back through the entire Modest Mouse Catalog and even to that of Marr’s work in the Smiths, and still I feel this is a record entirely different from anything they have done in the past. Even the radio single “Dashboard” is incredible in my opinion. Well done gentlemen. One and a half decades and you’re still one of the absolute best in the game.
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