{"id":536,"date":"2007-05-01T10:47:53","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T14:47:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-12T13:44:12","modified_gmt":"2008-12-12T13:44:12","slug":"workin-overtime-modest-mouse-lemgwe-were","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/workin-overtime-modest-mouse-lemgwe-were\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Modest Mouse Is Hard to Love, But Even Harder to Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This review originally appeared in Phawker.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Whew! My head hurts from all the time I\u2019ve been spending with the latest Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank<\/em>. This thing\u2019s hard work. When did the world get so smart that they<\/em> all get it and I\u2019m not sure I do? This band\u2019s moving units, right, and you can\u2019t attribute their appeal to hot looks<\/strong> and sweet hooks. In an act of brutal self-analysis, I persevered. And yes, I\u2019m a better man for having done so.<\/p>\n

For the first few spins of this new Modest Mouse album, all I could think of was why I find this band so difficult to like. Their angular funk marches, which are nevertheless not very danceable, aren\u2019t too far removed from the noisier side of XTC, a band I went so far as loving to defend the excessive-by-their-standards The Big Express<\/em>. At times, such as on the hit single \u201cDashboard\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019ve Got Everything\u201d<\/a><\/strong>, those angular funk marches verge into the \u201880s Bands Reunited territory<\/strong> of The Fixx as interpreted by Dave Matthews Band. Fair enough, but no reason to feel tormented by this record.<\/p>\n

The sea chantey choruses of songs like the opener, \u201cMarch into the Sea\u201d<\/a><\/strong>, could not set this fan of Pere Ubu\u2019s \u201cCaligari\u2019s Mirror\u201d over the edge. Not at all. In fact, if I had my druthers the production of this album would allow for the clanging guitars to fight for space with singer Isaac Brock\u2019s hectoring yelp. And no, hectoring yelps in an of themselves, I kept telling myself, are by no means deal breakers. But something about Brock\u2019s yelp had me playing the first 4 or 5 songs over and over, never feeling the slightest bit satisfied beyond the brief, rare, melodic Flaming Lips-styled elfin interludes of songs like the opener and \u201cFire It Up\u201d. Then it came to me: When did Bobcat Goldthwait get reborn as an indie rock singer?<\/em><\/strong> To carry on, I would have to steer clear of the deadly Bobcat segments.<\/p>\n

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Not the worst trip I’ve ever been on<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Early on, \u201cFlorida\u201d gave me some hope, sounding like one of those hopeless bids for a hit single off a Fontana-era Pere Ubu album. When I finally made it to a track called \u201cMissed the Boat\u201d<\/a><\/strong>, the seas began to part<\/strong>. With chiming guitars; choral vocals; and a brief, melodic guitar solo, this number went down easy. How I needed to get my bearings straight.<\/p>\n

The album ends with a string of songs that display challenging arrangements; hectoring, good natured, self-critical verses and grand, anthemic choruses; undanceable funk marches; and those damned segments in which Brock channels Bobcat. A song called \u201cSteam Engenius\u201d<\/a><\/strong> had me scratching my head with a bad case of \u201cWhat the hell does this remind me of?\u201d until I remembered the verses to Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cSouthbound Suarez\u201d<\/strong> mixed with an early XTC backing vocal device. Land ho! The punishing journey of trying to find a way to like this album had paid off. I want to go home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This review originally appeared in Phawker.com. Whew! My head hurts from all the time I\u2019ve been spending with the latest Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This thing\u2019s hard work. When did the world get so smart that they all get it and I\u2019m not sure I do? This band\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[65],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}