It has been a whopping eight years since Modest Mouse released their last album, 2007’s underwhelming We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. In that time, they rotated several band members, canceled a 2013 tour and collaborated with Outkast’s Big Boi and Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic. Fans deeply entrenched in a 20-year love affair with the band have been patiently awaiting new musical goodies from the indie vets.
Earlier this month, the band headlined the Gasparilla Music Festival here in Tampa, and they released their newest effort, Strangers to Ourselves, on Tues., March 17.
You would expect something supremely innovative after an eight-year absence from one of indie rock’s most seasoned and beloved bands, especially considering their discography. Their body of work includes lo-fi masterpieces The Lonesome Crowded West (1997) and The Moon & Antarctica (2000), and the soaring Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004), an alt-rock cornerstone that produced the irresistible hit, “Float On.”
Strangers to Ourselves opens with a title track, a very sweet, low-tempo standout, featuring some unusually soft vocals from singer Isaac Brock, reminiscent of the gentle “Blame it on the Tetons” on Good News for People Who Love Bad News. The simple opener is a lovely, redeeming record.
“Lampshades on Fire,” the album’s first single, reintroduces Brock’s manic, bombastic vocal style. The arrangement of the song is not exactly successful – it almost sounds like Modest Mouse set out to make a song that sounds like – well — an old Modest Mouse song.
A disappointing lack of creativity haunts the album. But, there are definitely sporadic glimmers of the glories of their earlier albums. The musicianship, overall, redeems Strangers.
Familiar melodic guitar riffs and amplified bass lines are effectively woven throughout Stranger's 15 tracks. “Shit in Your Cut” is a reminder of the band’s beautiful musicianship. “The Ground Walks With Time” wonderfully incorporates horns, and sounds close to what I was hoping a Modest Mouse song circa 2015 would sound like. The same can be said for the wonderfully whimsical, cynical “Pups to Dust,” (easily the album’s best song).
Missing from this effort is Brock’s consistently impeccable ability to turn a word. Lyrics like “You can’t know what you won’t ever really know/would you really wanna know/nah/you can’t know,” leave something to be desired from the notorious wordsmith.
“Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996),” whose title is a reference to the murder of Gianni Versace (reminding us of just how obscure Modest Mouse can be), sounds as if it accidentally slipped onto the track list. It is a song that makes absolutely no sense, with its puzzling, bizarre lyrics and sloppy, experimental arrangement.
“Sugar Boasts” and “Be Brave” employ Brock’s signature bark – however, his discordant, irreverent vocals don’t have nearly the power they did on The Lonesome Crowded West, where they felt radical and completely genuine.
Strangers sounds like a collection of songs that didn't quite make it onto Good News or even We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Although their technical musical prowess is still very much intact, Modest Mouse haven’t produced anything inventive or memorable with this effort (particularly after eight years of anticipation, and when you consider the virtue of their earliest albums). Still, it is hard not to hold out hope that the band is capable of so much more than this.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2015.