Skip to main content

Modest Mouse :: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

Image
By


M O D E S T M O U S E
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I have started and stopped this review oh, five times now; all the while trying to find a starting point, an objective voice. However, I realize that I cannot be objective about Modest Mouse, and we at Duck and Cover are not journalists. We are enthusiasts, and, honestly, seldom is anyone objective about something that they’re truly enthusiastic about. We love Modest Mouse, and have loved them for years and years, loved them since they were merely a blip on the radar of popular culture at large. (For the record, that’s post Lonesome Crowded West, yet pre Moon and Antarctica; we’re cool, and we have cred, but we’re not that cool. Though yes, we would like very much for you to believe otherwise.)

Digressions and birdwalking aside, let’s get down to what’s important; that being a truly great record from a truly great band. Let’s also point out that this review is NOT going to focus on the real or imagined contributions of one J. Marr, a guitarist of, apparently some renown, who may or may not have been a member of what may or may not have been one of the most significant bands of the 1980s. Marr’s contributions are obvious, yet they manage not to be obtrusive; this is the mark of an exceptional musician. Sadly though, most reviews that we’ve read thus far seem to focus more on whether you can or cannot hear Marr, as opposed to really talking about the record. We prefer to talk about the record.

WWDBTSES is much darker than the somewhat more upbeat Good News for People Who Love Bad News. The album opens with the creak of a ship and a distant accordion before being overtaken by the crash and thunder of MM, with Isaac Brock imploring “Treat me like disease, like the rats and the fleas…” and then surges forward into the insanely catchy single “Dashboard”. Far from dissecting the album track by track (or trying to identify standout tracks), we’ll just say that the record is very, very good. James Mercer of the Shins guests on the tracks “Florida”, “Missed the Boat”, and “We’ve Got Everything”, and his vocals are a decided complement to Brock’s. In fact, our money is on “Missed the Boat” as 2007’s summer anthem. One listener even said “so let me get this straight. This is Modest Mouse, the Smiths, AND the Shins? Well, how could it not be good?” Exactly, and well put.

Somehow, Modest Mouse managed to expand their lineup, literally doubling it, and end up with a record that was, somehow, more Modest Mouse than the last two records that they had made. The greatest accomplishment of WWDBTSES is the melding of the raw energy and musicality of their early work (LCW and before) with the lyricism of the Moon and Antarctica, and the sophistication and polish of Good News to create something new and beautiful, yet instantly familiar.

Modest Mouse
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Epic Records, 2007

Highly recommended
Hear the track "Missed the Boat" :: Listen
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lucero Video for "Darken My Door"

By
Darken My Door from Lucero on Vimeo . It's good to see that a serious band doesn't have to take itself seriously. Even better when a band's fans don't take them too seriously. "Darken My Door" off of Lucero's latest album, 1372 Overton Park , is a song about losing stuff--girlfriend, money, dignity. In fact, a lot of Lucero's songs are like that, but I'm not getting into that now. I'm talking about the video, which has so much to love. Obviously, I love the fact director Alex Mecum has used a puppet as the protagonist. But it's what the puppet does that makes this video so much fun. Puppet eating chili dogs, puppet drinking whiskey, puppet giving blow jobs . . . Hell, there's even puppet vomit! It's ridiculous, yes, but also tragic. By the end of the video, if you don't feel a little sorry for the scruffy faced whore puppet, then you have no soul. Here's a little more about the videos for Lucero's new album: To promot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Okkervil River, Wellington, New Zealand :: Live Music Review

By
There are energetic drummers, and then there is Travis Nelson. Truly, he is 'Animal.' Okkervil River albums have so much personality, the songs themselves become characters: players, people in the guise of animals or gods (and who can tell the difference sometimes?). And like watching a melodrama, we are witness to emotions that heave and plummet with frightening force. The songs can be drunken youth: the rotund boots on their feet knocking wildly on every surface. Or they can be villainous and smart, full of smiles and wishing-you-well up to the second they thrust the dagger into your belly. Pitched, lust-crazed, calculated: that is one half of an Okkervil album. The other emotion is equally intense in its thick, slow agony: the eternity it takes to remove the knife, knowing you have it all to do over. And so it goes: soaring, drunk, angry, knife, stab, agony, pull-it-out-and-let's-do-it-again. At the San Fransisco Bathhouse in Wellington, New Zealand, on a crisp early a...
2 comments
Read more

Best Music of 2008 [Last.FM gobbles our scrobbles]

By
Internet radio / social network / music discover tool Last.FM has released its Best of 2008 list. There are going to be dozens of "best" lists coming out in the next few weeks, but this one should command your attention. The list is not based on radio play, and it is not based on best selling albums. It is based on the number of times we (that's the royal "we" in all it's regal garb) have played tracks from our iTunes, iPods, Songbirds, or any other player that allows scrobbling. It is based on what we wanted to hear. We pressed play. We made the playlists. The only fault I can find lies in the Top 10 Tracks, which basically MGMT and Colplay. But that's what you get with raw data. To me, the Artists list is the most compelling. You will find no Kanye West on this list; no Britney and no Janet. You will only find the artists played incessantly and obsessively.
3 comments
Read more