Modest Mouse are reported to be living somewhere inside this album. I, however, cannot find them. This is the first music they have released that is completely forgettable. It comes out of the speakers, into your ears and then disappears. All of the previous MM releases, and I've heard, loved and lived them all, are unique, enduring and beloved pieces of music; this record is not of that ilk. And that's a real shame, MM are one of the finest bands of the past 10 or 15 years, right up there with the likes of Ween, Built to Spill and all of the Jagjaguwar bands. Oh well, a rare miss. I'm still a huge fan, still gonna go see them whenever the tour rolls around (definitely go see them live, when Isaac isn't too drunk, the shows can be legendary), still gonna love the freak rock phenomena that is Modest Mouse, just can't seem to get behind this release.
This has some gems buried in the middle of the CD, but in general it isn't as good as "The Moon and Antarctica" or "GNFPHLBN". One thing I noticed was the the drums, especially the base drum, were really pushed forward in the mix. This has lead to the heavy sound some others have mentioned and, unfortunately, buried the melody in several songs. Perhaps Brock has chosen to reject the commercial route with this album but he has pushed the pendulum to the other extreme and in essence not stayed true to the path of his other CD's.
No comments:
Post a Comment