Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 03/20/2007
Now that
Modest Mouse have fully established themselves as a major-label
indie rock band -- no longer an oxymoron! -- with the success of 2004's
Good News for People Who Love Bad News (though they had actually been on
Sony, through
Epic, since 2000's
The Moon & Antarctica), they face the difficult task of trying to follow up a mainstream hit while still retaining the adroit quirkiness that won them fans in the first place. Finding that space between "creativity" and "accessibility" is not easy, but the band (with help from
Johnny Marr, among others) is probably as well, if not better, equipped as anyone to tackle the challenge. The first single,
"Dashboard," is catchy and interesting, even a little off-kilter, but it's also completely radio-friendly, in that dancey
Franz Ferdinand kind of way, and the album's opener,
"March into the Sea," has great juxtaposition between
Isaac Brock's maniacal Cookie Monster laugh and lighter accordion and string work. It's slightly unconventional, and has that raucous energy the band has thrived on, but it's also wholly understandable and approachable, and a lot of fun. Still, too often it seems as if
Modest Mouse plays it safe on
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
James Mercer, the singer of the "life-changing"
Garden State darlings
the Shins, shows up three times on background vocals, and while on
"Florida" this works well enough,
"Missed the Boat" and
"We've Got Everything" are among the weakest tracks on the record, too predictable, in that radio-
indie-rock style, to do much more than just take up space. There's nothing overtly wrong with them (or the similarly boring
"Education" or
"People as Places as People") --
Brock's lyrics are as wackily introspective as ever -- but the band had never just gotten by on being nice-sounding and unmemorable. It's not that
Modest Mouse has lost it, or sold out; tracks like
"Parting of the Sensory" and
"Fly Trapped in a Jar" combine digestible guitar lines and phrasing with a rawer intensity, and show that the group is indeed capable of moving innovate "indie" music to the mainstream ("someday you will die somehow and something's gonna steal your carbon,"
Brock sings ingeniously over pounding, swirling drums in a kind of post-modern chant in
"Parting"), but overall,
We Were Dead Before... has chosen the safer, more acceptable route over the more adventurous one.
Modest Mouse is a talented bunch, and so the album still works, is still enjoyable. But because they've built themselves on pushing boundaries and traditional sounds, it's also a glaring representation of all they could do, but won't.
~Marisa Brown, All Music Guide
Average Review:
Number of reviews: 2
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A reviewer
from Malmo, Sweden
they will never die
probbly one of the best albums i own, and im usually into ska,but this is just amazing...its jus as good as good news/bad news...dont waste time, but this now!!
tracks:
1:10/10-great slow/fast start to albums
2:11/10-one of the best songs i ever herd...vocals r off the wall
3:10/10-very nice
4:8/10-very good ending...stil very good adition to album
5:8/10-many extremes to this song...very good
6:9/10-good set up and lyrics...gest lyrics by james mercer from the shins
7:7/10-mabe not my fav song...but still great...many find it one of the best
8:8/10-brocks vocals r amazing
9:10/10-very catchy
10:10/10-a soft song,a bit dif from the rest ot the CD...but very appealing
11:8/10-interesting song, woo hoos r cool
12:9/10a very long song...but nothing new for mm...very good...dif levels of intensity on this song
13:9/10-very catch agan
14:9/10-a very extreme version of brocks levels of vocalizing...very strong ending
A reviewer
from Atlanta, GA
It's okay. A bit dissapointed.
Modest Mouse, has produced some awesome records in the past. This one is a bit different sound due to the new gutaist, i'm guessing. Personally my favoirte Modest Mouse album is Build Nothing Out of Something. This is to pop for Modest Mouse. There are a few good tracks but mostly the sound is different and I do not care for it. Overall it could have been better. 4 stars.
;)
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