Modest Mouse

The Smiths' iconic guitarist Johnny Marr joins the band for this LP, and longtime fan Isaac Brock's wishful thinking pays off. Along with Brock's tantrum vocals and the disheveled density of songs like "Parting of the Sensory," Marr's uplifting jangle lends an optimism that reverberates throughout. It fits in best with Brock's glass-half-full (but just barely) lyrics on the thumping "Dashboard" ("The dashboard melted/ But we still had the radio"). Adding even more is guest Shin James Mercer, chiming in on "We've Got Everything" and the Talking Heads-y "Florida."

Wrapping a wordy, darkly whimsical title around a bunch of songs many will find catchy
and none will find pretty, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank takes after Modest
Mouse's other four albums, even with guitarist Johnny Marr added to the equation. Like
everything the band has released since signing with Epic in the teeth of a millennial panic,
it's louder and somewhat less twisty than the group's indie output. But where so... More >

Not much chance there's another "Float On" here to goose sales, but just because novelties are always unlikely, but because "Float On" found Isaac Brock in an atypically live-and-let-live mood. Usually he's more f*ck-me, let's-get-lost, or oh-sh*t-not-again. So one candidate, the instantly hooky "We Know Everything," tops its "we know we know" backup with a "Left you dying on the floor" finale; another, "Steam Engenius," tosses in some woo-hoos on its way to "Stasis is what you got." In short, his latest lyrics are like his earliest, yoking images of failure and frustration to the loud and the catchy, thus rendering failure and frustration more fun. After six albums, this victory is getting too theoretical. Brock is a dour guy with a lot of talent and a good hustle who's been mining the same vein of meaning for over a decade. That's a long time--maybe too long. (Grade - B PLUS)