Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

I remember it well; walking through a certain retail chain, looking at discs with friends, I didn’t see anything that grabbed my attention, but then I remembered a band people kept telling me about. I had never heard a single note of Modest Mouse, but I didn’t care. I was curious about what they sounded like, and I didn’t want to commit the sin of walking out of a music store empty handed. I bought The Lonesome Crowded West that day and fell in love with it. Now, years later, they remain one of my all-time favorite bands, and I walk into the same store on a mission to buy their newest release hours after the store has opened. Good News For People Who Love Bad News comes out at unique time for the band. Isaac Brock’s publicized troubles with the law, band line-up changes, and the pressure of following the most critically acclaimed album of the bands career, set the stage for either a triumph or a flop. The indie media is ready to pounce on whichever it shall be, and happily it is very much the former, standing tall as arguably the bands most solid album to date. Opening with the somewhat uneventful “The World At Large”, the instantly recognizable strum and lyrics of the band form a song that sounds like it is waiting to explode, but never does. As a song, maybe not the bands best work, but as an album device it flows perfectly into the pay off; the album’s first single “Float On”, a catchy and almost anthematic work never before explored in the bands catalogue. The fast pace continues with the single worthy “Ocean Breathes Salty” and the screaming “Bury Me With It”, leading nicely into the middle of the album. After a strong start it is often hard to keep the pace going, but here it is maintained nicely by one of the albums stronger tracks, “Bukowski”. “Blame It On The Tetons” strums softly across the lobes, as a hauntingly familiar song. The melody is instantly hypnotic, and even though I am positive I have heard it somewhere before, it still serves as one of the best songs on the album, splitting itself almost in half between a soft acoustic opener and an orchestral rock song. “Black Cadillacs” showcases Brock’s well known lyrically poetry against a strum-a-syllable groove from the 80’s. Finally, riding off into the sunset with “Once Chance” and “The Good Times Are Killing Me”, the album closes masterfully into a complete package. Modest Mouse achieved success early when it came out of the gates and established a sound of its own on its debut. Brock’s lispy delivery of almost existentialist lyrics against a spacious guitar identified each song unmistakably as Modest Mouse, as they cemented themselves on the follow-up. And The Moon & Antarctica not only solidified the band as capable of making epic studio efforts, but brought the band into full stride. Now, they deliver an album filled with the cream of the crop in a stellar career. Other albums of theirs may contain strong individual tracks, but the cohesive flow and consistent quality of this work make it the bands strongest all around album to date. [www.modestmouse.com]