Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Reviewed by justin

At this point, it’s a chore to hear Isaac Brock contemplate his mortality. Because sure, “Satin in a Coffin” was a great song, and lines like “you wasted life why wouldn’t you waste the afterlife?” reestablished an invigorating brilliance in existential inquiry--I mean, Brock wrote the book on making pop culture philosophy sound sharp and insightful--it’s just that by now, lines like “I wish death on myself” are like liberal political analysts on "The Daily Show." It’s just that they’re tired. Otherwise, major label life seems to be agreeing with the boys from Washington; the songs are relatively cheerful, and by pre-Moon and Antarctica standards they’re fucking jubilant. Isaac’s still spending most of his time in his car, covering every interstate in America, and he still can’t resist delving into the epistemological observations he’s so keen to make. He still swears like a raucous skinhead too, but I’m learning to make peace with that. Musically, the band continues in the tradition of pre-9/11 albums. If Good News For People Who Like Bad News was the band’s proof that you could fill an album with Middle Eastern string instruments and Tom Waits impressions and still have a hit single, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is their sleek, sexy return to form, and “Dashboard” is the accompanying balls-out homecoming party (it’s got trumpets!) “March into the Sea” is both vintage Mouse and shameless Pixies theft, crashing through track one like Steve McQueen through a saloon door. As a single, “Dashboard” falters, acting carelessly impervious to the needs of the audience it’s employed to entertain. This strikes me as particularly odd, because “Fire it Up,” “Florida,” and “Missed the Boat” were all birthed from the kind of placating semen that knows how to top charts. Perhaps of note is that Johnny Marr’s presence is almost completely unfelt here, and probably for the better, because there isn’t a lot he could do to make this band sound more competent. Even after their induction into mass culture, Modest Mouse remain in the nearly diminished pool of indie rock bands that actually matter. And for the first time Isaac seems fully aware of this; “Fly Trapped in a Jar” and “Education” both ooze with the kind of shameless confidence that could have made “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” from The Moon and Antarctica a passable song. There are actually several moments I can pinpoint, though he’d never actually say so, where Isaac actually seems to embrace his enduring vitality. Suck it, “Float On” haters. [www.modestmouse.com]

Mar 21 2007