Modest Mouse - "Strangers to Ourselves" Album Review

Last week Modest Mouse finally released their 6th full-length album, their first in almost 8 years, an eternity in modern day music. It's a good effort that comes up a bit short, but this is one of those cases where anything would have been preferable to no new music at all. Especially with Isaac Brock's recent declaration that he's got a whole companion album almost ready to go, the seminal Oregon-via-Washington indie rock band is more exciting now than it's been in just about a decade. Perhaps we can't fully look at this album until that one comes out too, but yeah, we're gonna. I didn't get an advance copy of it, obviously, so I'm just reviewing it now after about 8 listens or so.

Some background on me as a Modest Mouse listener: I have more songs (163 now) in my iTunes library by this band than any other. I first started listening to them in 2004 when I first heard "Float On," the band's biggest crossover hit to date and the one that really propelled them to mainstream recognition. The literal next day, a friend of mine played the start of The Lonesome Crowded West for me and "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine" was like nothing I had ever heard before, certainly not anything like "Float On." Undaunted, I got Good News for People Who Love Bad News and I loved it. Soon thereafter I moved backwards to get The Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon & Antarctica and initially I was very put off by songs like "Dark Center of the Universe" and "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"; they actually scared me. It took a little time, but I really think listening to them helped expand my mind of what music/a song could sound like.

When We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank came out, I was finishing high school and on a final semester trip in Israel. Hence, no Modest Mouse album came out during my college years, so I do feel like I kind of missed out in that way. But, I digress: to the album review!

Let's start with the album cover, something unlike anything they've ever done in their career. Though it is a very interesting photo, supposedly of an RV park in Mesa, Arizona, I was initially put off that this was the cover - ditching the aesthetic Modest Mouse had gone for over the years. This is their first LP without the band name or album title on it. But if you know about Brock's history, having partly grown up in a trailer park, it does make sense. Plus, it continues the theme of paradoxical titles.

So now, without further ado, here we go:

1. Strangers to Ourselves

I've heard a lot of criticism that this song also strays from Modest Mouse's 'tradition' of powerful album openers. I hadn't really considered that, but for me, this song really eases you into the album nicely. The violin reminds me of the sparse moments on The Moon & Antarctica. Brock starts out sounding like he's sleep-singing with his sarcastic musings on how humans can give excuses for everything that we do. "We're lucky that we slept ... We're lucky that we're so capable to forget ... How often we've become susceptible to regret, I do regret ... How often we are confused ... We'll forget." No matter what we do - eh, forget about it - don't like it? We'll all forget about what happened sooner or later.

2. Lampshades on Fire

Song 1 goes right into song 2, the band's first single from this album and a song that they've been playing on the live circuit for at least the past 3 years. When I first heard the studio version, it immediately reminded me of the band's last first single, "Dashboard" from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. It's probably the most danceable tune the band has created - and yes, I danced to it when I saw them in New York last week. But it also made me think of the soft to upbeat 2-3 punch from Good News, "The World at Large" into "Float On," complete with the "ba ba ba's." Stylistically different than the first song, Brock continues to set the theme for the rest of the album: "Pack up again, move to the next place / Where we'll make the same mistakes." Our excuse this time? "Yeah we got spines and we have bones! This is how it's always been and this is how it's gonna be." We're humans and are going to destroy where we are and just move along and do it all over again. "Shave off my eyebrows, let 'em fall to the ground / So I can't look surprised right now." Hah!

3. Shit in Your Cut

Track 3 may have been the peak of the album before the next track ruined it but ultimately this is a fine Modest Mouse song, somewhat in the vein of The Moon & Antarctica. The bass, lead guitar during the chorus and Brock's simultaneous upper and lower registers' sinewy singing of "I think I'll ride this winter out" make me think of the dark moments on that record. "I know everyone needs to go / But don't everyone go, don't everyone go at once." That's pretty simple to me; death is inevitable but I wish it wasn't so often or frequent.

4. Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)

Oy. This track ruined what I thought was a really nice start to the album. Cunanan, now that I've looked it up, was a serial killer who killed several people before offing himself. I suppose this is Brock pretending this is what Cunanan was thinking in his head before he did what he did. With Brock's voice pitched down, the vocals remind me of The Moon & Antarctica's "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes," though the song itself minus the lyrics sounds like it could have been on Mogwai's latest album. I never thought I would hear Isaac Brock 'sing' "I'm gonna zip-zip-zip-zip-zip-za-za-za-zip your pants on down / I'm gonna sip-sip-sip-sip-sip from my Royal, Royal, Royal Crown."

5. Ansel

Another track that they've been playing for a few years now. I love the guitar/bass combo during the wordless 'chorus.' And, steel drums? Brock sings about his brother Ansel, who died in an avalanche when they were in Mexico a decade ago. Brock has stated that this is really about his brother, but he's been known to embellish and make stories up in reference to his music, so it remains to be confirmed if it's true or not. Either way, it's not a fun story. But especially if it is true, it makes this pretty straight-forward song for him very heartbreaking, though the music isn't so sad. "You can't know, well you won't ever even know / Would you really want to know? / Na, you can't know / The last time that you'll ever see another soul / No, you never get to know / No, you don't know." Gah.

6. The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box

This is one of Isaac's manic guitar songs, and the longest one on the album. I like the melody, and some of the pings in the background do sound like the (offbeat) tick-tocking of a clock. Is it just me or does it sound like there's some auto-tune going on during the verses? Two-thirds through the song where the feedback of harmonics come in sounds a little forced but is, again, reminiscent of old-school Modest Mouse and a pretty cool interlude before finishing up the song. Brock has had a long history of his criticizing the idea of God, and here he seems to be saying 'the world' just creates what it wants to, with man of course being the worst part about it. And through everything, it's holding time hostage: "The world's an inventor / We're the dirtiest thing it's thought about / And we really don't mind."

7. Coyotes

Isaac Brock has long been obsessed with animals, from song titles ("Wild Packs of Family Dogs") to publicly talking about wishing maybe that he was one, and apparently this song took its inspiration from an actual coyote that rode the Portland light rail a few years back. This song does sound kind of out of place on a pretty upbeat album but it might be my favorite track here. The four acoustic guitar notes before the choruses are sweet. The way the song swells to the end is magnificent. But again, back to the theme of the album; humans are destroying what's in our path (much like coyotes kill livestock...) and are pretending our way through everything: "Mankind's behaving like some serial killers / And we're in love with all of it / And we say we're in love with everything / And we say, what can we say?" The crushing blow comes in the last line to turn everything on its head: "And we lie / We love to lie." Do people say they love everything just to mask the fact that there are really terrible things going on in the world (of which they contribute to some) and they don't want to think about it? Or do people just say they love everything to gain acceptance in others' eyes because they think it'll look good on them?

8. Pups to Dust

When I first heard the opening guitar lick I thought this was going to be a classic Modest Mouse song, but it ended up being just a fine song, again in the same vein as the rest of the album so far: "We don't belong here / We were just born here ... We really don't belong here / We really oughta wander away." "I don't lie very often but I lie very well" is just a great line, regardless of context. Brock's background "scrubba scrubba scrubba scrubba" line makes me chuckle each time I hear it. Like the 'pretending' motif in "Coyotes," his line "The way we feel about what we do is by who has watched us" is basically the depressing thought I have every time I venture onto any social media app or website.

9. Sugar Boats

Man, Brock has really doubled down on the 'Why do we exist? What are we doing here?' motif, hasn't he? The first line of this song is "This rock of ours is just some big mistake / And we will never know just where we go or where we have came from." He also sings about his heart being a machine that doesn't work the way he wants it to and looking at his watch and seeing it just swallow up his time. Originally known as "Heart of Mine" when played on tours over the past few years, the song's introduction has also changed from being a sliding guitar scale (which you hear as the start of the outro on this track now) to a sea shanty via piano which makes it sound like it could have been on We Were Dead. This might be an example of a song that brings up the same points that Brock already has on this album and would have been better off as a B-side on an outtakes disc.

10. Wicked Campaign

Another song on here that could have probably been a B-side, on We Were Dead or even some sideways-universe Shins album. Yes, that is James Mercer on backing vocals. The music here kind of sounds like they're really trying to make a statement, and it just falls flat. Essentially, man is on his 'wicked campaign' in the world. All in all, this might be the worst song here aside from "Pistol."

11. Be Brave

This is another song that they've been playing live for a few years now. I like it but feel like it's just missing something that I can't quite put my finger on, similarly to "Ansel." Maybe it's the transition to or substance of the chorus. Now, instead of just telling us how messed up the world is, Brock is at least giving us the encouragement to be brave about it all: "Well the earth doesn't care and we hardly even matter / We're just a bit more piss to push out its full bladder / And as our bodies break down into all their rocky little bits / Piled up under mountains of dirt and silt / And still the world it don't give a shit / But be brave." I like the sentiment of the bridge/outro: "At the Parthenon / Ants were climbing 'round / Every head of bronze." Ancient goddesses and legendary figures may have done some amazing things and were really important once upon a time, but now they just remain as bronze statues that get crawled on by insects, the lowest of the animal food chain.

12. God is an Indian and You're an Asshole

I don't know. This track is reminiscent of the "Well I don't know but I've been told, you never die and you'll never grow old" interlude prior to "The Cold Part" on The Moon & Antarctica and "3 Inch Horses, Two Faced Monsters," which cribbed that part on Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks. On "Bukowski" from Good News, Brock calls God an "Indian Giver" because he gives us life and just takes it back, but I don't know what he means here by just calling Him an Indian. There are a bunch of clues I've strung together but I haven't been able to crack the case just yet.

13. The Tortoise and the Tourist

When I first heard this I was confused because it sounds a lot like "The Whale Song" from the No One's First, and You're Next B-sides EP. But this song is a force. I love the "Let's pack up/walk off! Let's go" segments. So basically, the choruses and the guitars (intro/outro) make this song. It contains a parable about a man meeting a mystical tortoise who had secrets of the universe, but he just killed the animal and took its shell 'cause it had shiny jewels on it. Man ruins everything... where have I heard that one before? He also says the album name during this track, though the first song on the album is actually called it. I like that too.

14. The Best Room

This song, another pre-release single, is slightly reminiscent of other pre-release single "The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box." Its chorus sounds like a cut off of We Were Dead. Brock mentioned this in commentary for the album, but he sings about how everything we do and think about is viewed through our "Western" lens (#firstworldproblems). We're the best and we deserve the best, so what do we think of this? "Let's go reckless, feeling great / We're the sexiest of all primates." When he sings "Western concerns" it kind of sounds like he's saying "Restroom concerns," which is interesting to me if that was something that was planned. (Or maybe that's just due to his lisp.) His "The family living upstairs must have a fleet of rider lawn mowers" line also just amuses me every time.

15. Of Course We Know

And a dirge to end the album. Interesting that they released the last track on the album as a single; they also played this one first in the concert I was at last week. I like this track, but conversely to the opening track, it kind of sends the album off on a slow note. I don't know what to call them, but some of the percussion on the quarter notes just sound really fake. And a lot of Brock's singing in auto-tune or when he goes really deep sounds kind of silly. But I like the "ahhhhs" at the end of each line. I also like how he sings "Of course... we just do not know" every time until the last line when he declares, "Of course we know." So, what do or don't we know? "Well, of course we just do not know / What the hell we're here for / We just do not know." Duh. Finally, Brock just wants God to get on the same playing field with the rest of us: "Lord, lay down your own damn soul."

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So, a pretty bleak affair but in a mostly energetic style. They haven't really changed their style since their last release but they show some new flourishes, for better and worse. I'm glad they've finally put out a new album, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to what they're releasing next, hoping it's a bit better as a whole. This is not a bad album and there are very good moments on it, but due to all their previous high marks you'd probably have to say it's their worst so far.