It’s been four years since we last heard anything new from Seattle’s best-kept secret, but the glorious horn fanfare at the beginning of this record heralds MODEST MOUSE, at long last, back into the musical arena.
Strictly speaking it’s not Seattle, but Issaquah, Washington. Anyhow, the intervening years since their 2000 release, ‘The Moon And Antarctica’, has seen band upheavals, drug abuse, and there’s even been jail time for singer/songwriter Isaac Brock. Amid all this confusion of life comes, possibly, their most accessible record to date, the superbly titled ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’, their fourth studio album in a career spanning, so far, ten years.
The afore-mentioned nine-second-horn piece is supplied by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the first in a number of associates. Produced by Dennis Herring, from the Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker stable, the sound is, somehow, more polished and expansive than their previous efforts, leading W&H to the conclusion that this could well be their breakthrough album.
Modest Mouse (seemingly, a derogatory name for the American middle-classes) are, if nothing else, an eclectic bunch. There are various reference points here with the band switching effortlessly between Pixies-influenced indie rock, ‘Bury Me With It’, ‘Black Cadillacs’; to the intelligent agit-pop of ‘Float On’ and ‘The View’, in which they sail closely to waters occupied by Talking Heads, and of all people, Franz Ferdinand; to the ancient Americana sound of ‘Bukowski’ and ‘Blame It On The Tetons’.
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Brock, famed for his intelligent and, at times, caustic lyrics, shows he hasn’t lost the touch. Lines such as “I backed my car into a cop car the other day, Well he just drove off, sometimes life’s ok” (Float On) and “Woke up this morning, it seemed to me every night turns out to be a little bit more bukowski And yeah I know he’s a pretty good read but God who’d want to be such an asshole” (Bukowski) don’t come along that often, so enjoy them while you can.
There’s flashes of Mercury Rev in ‘The World At Large’; Tom Waits/Chuck E Weiss in the superb clatter of ‘Dance Hall’ and ‘This Devil’s Workday’; while the album’s closer, ‘The Good Times Are Killing Me’, has an obvious Flaming Lips feel to it, seeing as the track was produced and mixed by Wayne Coyne.
But, amid all this influence, Modest Mouse emerge with a sound that, while not being totally unique, makes you feel like you’ve known these songs for ever. A rare talent indeed. So, it might be a long drive for someone with nothing to think about, but if you’ve got this playing in your car stereo, at least that long drive is gonna be enjoyable.
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