Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves

Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves

March 3, 2015

http://www.stereogum.com/1724888/modest-mouses-new-album-is-called-strangers-to-ourselves/news/

The Lonesome Crowded West and Moon and Antarctica are two of my favorite albums of ever. And Isaac Brock is one of the best lyricists of our time (IMO). Really looking forward to this.

*grabs skinny jeans from closet*

I love Modest Mouse!

Haven't listened to them in ages, but I loved The Moon and Antarctica back when.

I am excited. I haven't listened to any of the newer songs they've been performing. I hope it sounds closer to pre-2004 MM. Not that I have any real problem with the last two albums, but I just feel like since the band got larger in size, they've lost a bit of what made them so relatable. Either way, they're one of my favorites and I look forward to seeing what they do next. Very curious about the supposed Big Boi collab.

Here's the new song. Not bad, but they're still chasing that Float On fame.

http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2014/12/14/modest-mouse-lampshades-on-fire-song-premiere

Even though I was disappointed in the last two albums (I really hated We Were Dead...), I still have hope that they'll release something good again. The new song isn't anything special, but at least it's not annoying like "Float On" and the rest of that album.

The more I listen to it, the more I like it, but I really don't want another album in the vein of the last two. I actually loved We Were Dead.... But one of the things about Modest Mouse is that they always tried to evolve on every album, and they seem to have perfected whatever aesthetic they were going for on the last two records, so I just hope for something else. Either way, I'm sure I'll like the album.

It was just weird to me that they abandoned the whole sound of The Moon and Antarctica but seemingly took a song like Paper Thin Walls and made that into the sound of the band as a whole.

  On 12/17/2014 at 10:54 PM, flim said:

I actually loved We Were Dead....

Same. There are some wonderful tunes on that album.

We Were Dead was nice but since it didn't have the patented Modest Mouse bendy notes, I thought it'd have that ringing jangly Marr guitar. It had neither, so it sounded like a collab that didn't reach its potential.

  On 12/19/2014 at 4:57 AM, Candiru said:

We Were Dead was nice but since it didn't have the patented Modest Mouse bendy notes, I thought it'd have that ringing jangly Marr guitar. It had neither, so it sounded like a collab that didn't reach its potential.

I don't think we'll be hearing the bendy notes anymore, since we really haven't heard them after 2004. Supposedly those notes were a result of Isaac not having any kind of guitar training, but since he learned the "proper way" to play guitar from the Califone guys, his old style has been all but obliterated, resulting in the poppier sound that the band has now. I read that somewhere a long time ago, don't remember where.

Also he's been writing bullshit lyrics without the emotion behind older stuff. As the story goes...aging rock star no longer filled with angst.

  On 12/20/2014 at 8:25 AM, sidewinder said:

Also he's been writing bullshit lyrics without the emotion behind older stuff. As the story goes...aging rock star no longer filled with angst.

Also no drugs. I always think it's absurd to say that people are more creative when they're on drugs, but more often than not, when someone gets sober, their music and lyrics change, usually for the worst.

Good music gets addicted to drugs too, just like people. You take the drugs away and shit gets wack

Edit: but modest mouse ain't wack

Always loved Spitting Venom from We Were Dead. Just love that huge, blue-sky horn sound. Always has a massive uplifting effect upon me. Da-da-da-da-dah-da-dah-dahhhh-da-dahhhhhh.

Yeah I've had a few beers lol (but everything is cool)

I unfortunately agree with the sentiment that the last album was their weakest. We may never get that fire that characterized their early run of albums, but one can hope.

Might try catching them live if the new album is good. Grew up on The Moon and Antartica and discovered Lonesome Crowded West late in high school. Really love those albums but their new stuff doesn't have that same sort of feeling

  On 12/22/2014 at 7:54 AM, Danny O Flannagin said:

Might try catching them live if the new album is good. Grew up on The Moon and Antartica and discovered Lonesome Crowded West late in high school. Really love those albums but their new stuff doesn't have that same sort of feeling

Their shows are always a toss-up. I've seen them 3 times now, and each time seemed different in tone. 2003, it was a lot rougher and energetic, and they seemed to be having a good time. 2005, very subdued and weird (it didn't seem right for them to play a theater as opposed to some small club). 2008 as openers for R.E.M., it was very quick and dirty, and I got the feeling that they didn't want to be there. There was no banter or anything, they just came out and played for 45 minutes and left. As one of my favorite bands (and one of the only I've seen multiple times), I always want to see what they're doing live, but I always leave a little more disappointed each time.

I saw them in 2007 or 2008 with Johnny Marr and they were great. I was told Isaac Brock can show up wasted and fuck everything up but fortunately this did not happen.

this is not bad, but very much in the same vein of the last 2. there's one track "the ground walks" that sounds like it could have come from M&A era modest mouse. that "pistol" track is definitely a head-scratcher...

one thing that someone commented on earlier is Isaac's lyrics are no way as profound or clever as they once were. it seems he no longer sings about himself "I" and uses "we" or "we're" alot more. he used to tell personal stories in his songs and now seems to just give general observations about how much we all suck.

I will check this out. Hopefully sooner rather than later

"Sugar Boats" and "Be Brave" are really standing out on my second listen.

I played this album a lot last week, I enjoy it a lot more than We Were Dead which I really hated actually - an obnoxious piece of shit as far as I'm concerned. A few songs on this one suck pretty bad, such as the weirdly dancey "Pistol" and "The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box", but otherwise I like the variety on the album and there are quite a few solid songs. My favorites are "Shit in Your Cut" and "God Is an Indian and You're an Asshole". I really appreciate the slower tracks like the title track opener, "Coyotes", and the closer "Of Course We Know" and the balance they create for the whole album. I'm still not giving this more than 3.5/5 stars but I'd say it's a decent comeback and I might, as a whole, like it more than Good News too, which was a big disappointment for me when it came out despite 2 or 3 really good ones (not including "Float On" which annoys the shit out of me).