I knew I hadn't heard anything from Modest Mouse for a while but was actually quite surprised to discover Strangers To Ourselves is the first album from the band in 8 years – that's nearly a decade! I first heard of Modest Mouse when I was at school and people were going to see them in Brighton towards the end of the 90's. They played at The Lift (now The Hope & Ruin) but I was under-age, so I didn't chance it. I actually got into the band nearly ten years later with their 2007 album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which famously featured Johnny Marr, the former guitarist with The Smiths, as a fully fledged band member. It also featured James Mercer from The Shins, who contributed some very memorable backing vocals on three key songs and, along with 2004's Good News For People Who Love Bad News, it formed a major commercial breakthrough for the band.
So what's been happening in-between and why come back now? The break wasn't really a break, it would appear, as Modest Mouse never really stopped existing as an entity, they headlined festivals here and there, appeared in a Pitchfork Documentary, contributed a song to a Buddy Holly compilation and, as early as 2011, producer Big Boi (well known as half of OutKast) had publicly announced he was working on an album with the band. At the same time they unveiled two new tracks, including lead single 'Lampshades On Fire' and 'Poison The Well', although the latter has not made it to the final release. I suppose it's no coincidence front-man Isaac Brock has started a record label called Glacial Pace – the album even came out two weeks later than its originally stated release date!
The new album begins with the title track 'Strangers To Ourselves', it's a mellow, vibey piece. Isaac Brock singing with the most restrained and sweet tone he can manage backed by luscious cellos, double bass and gently brushed drums. There are all sorts of shimmery keyboards and chiming sounds floating in the background of this laid-back melancholy number. It's a wrong-footer though, just as you're thinking Modest Mouse have grown up and mellowed out track two 'Lampshades On Fire' kicks in with the familiar sound of the last couple of albums. Up-tempo and quirky, with Brock's distinctive half-crazed vocal delivery, the title is intriguing as hell but on the first few listens I can hardly make out the words as it flies by at quite a pace.
The crudely titled 'Shit In Your Cut' adopts a different pace again, slower, steady, moody and atmospheric, ending with the repeated refrain of 'I guess we'll ride this winter out', it has a somewhat hypnotic feel. Next up is 'Pistol (A Cunanan, Miami, FL, 1996)', a strange track with some dark hip-hop influences that sounds a little out of place compared to the rest of the material, in spite of the evident genre-shifting going on elsewhere – something about the pitch-shifted vocals doesn't quite land for me. Isaac Brock released a frankly baffling commentary recording as a companion piece to the album, it's a really weird thing but in one of its rare moments of lucidity Brock gives us some insight into his cryptical eclecticism – this song is a fiction based on the story of Andrew Cunanan who shot fashion designer Gianni Versace as part of a killing spree in the late 90's. Brock says he set the song in Florida, which Cunanan would have been no where near at the time, in order to marry the songs content and it's context which marks the man as a bit of a musical (and lyrical) magpie – who likes to mix ideas together to create that unique Modest Mouse flavour.
'Ansel' has calypso guitars paired with what sounds like real steel drums and a slightly unexpected Wheezer-esque chord progression in the chorus. In another reveal on the commentary we hear that Ansel was Isaac's brother, who was killed in an avalanche, and this is a song about the last time he saw him… those tropical sounds marking a stark contrast to the circumstances of his brothers death.
'The Ground Walks with Time In A Box' hits us with another typical up-tempo Modest Mouse groove. The proverbial penny dropped for me while I was listening to this one as I suddenly realised there's a close relationship between this band and Talking Heads, Brock's delivery is not a million miles from David Byrne's at times and that funky bass is not a million miles from something Tina Weymouth would dream up. It feels a bit like the title refers to the two parts of the song as there is a distinct shift of feel after four minutes before the track relaxes into an extended outro groove that's mostly instrumental.
'Coyotes' is more sparsely arranged with a focus on acoustic instruments, according to Brock a meditation on wishing “we could live with the natural world instead of on top of it”. 'Pups To Dust' keeps things in a mellower space, but with some of those offbeat percussive elements that make it hard not to bob your head and contains more of Brocks' trademark acid tongue, “I don't lie very often but I lie very well!”. 'Sugar Boats' has a carnival circus vibe to it, with a piano hook that's clearly modelled on Julius Fu?ík's 'Entry Of The Gladiators' (the classic circus theme). There's a great drunken trombone dancing in the background and it returns to that circus theme for the outro with some extremely heavy sounding guitars.
'Wicked Campaign' has some lofty backing vocals that remind me of James Mercer's contributions to We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. 'God Is An Indian and You're An Asshole' sounds like some old prairie camp-fire song, very short, built around repeating the phrase, 'god is an Indian and you're an asshole, get on your horse and ride!'
'The Tortoise and the Tourist' and 'The Best Room' breeze by sounding like straightforward Modest Mouse, there are no particularly strong hooks but these are decent songs nonetheless. The final song 'Of Course We Know' strips things down to a bare melancholy, ending the album with a similar feel to how it began, although the ending is more digital in it's textures where the start is more acoustic. It fills up to become quite a thick sprawl by the end and in spite it's luscious big ballad motifs it is full of tension, wound tight like a spring. Just as you think it's going to hit a big epic conclusion they opt for restraint and bring things down to piano, vocal and sparse production. It's a lovely moment to end the record on.
The production throughout is interesting – every song is densely arranged with lots of instrumentation and there is a lot that sounds like it couldn't exist without computer wizardry, so while the album contains a lot of familiar Modest Mouse sounds and approaches it also sounds more produced and digitally constructed than their other works, there are synths, extra percussion, reversed samples and such which are most noticeable on tracks like 'Pistol' and 'Wicked Campaign' (although they both exhibit these effects in totally distinct ways). Big Boi has certainly earned his production credit! One criticism might be that the album feels a little over long, there are, perhaps, a few tracks in the back half that could have been spared to keep things a little more concise – there's also an argument for leaving 'Pistol' off – but then again, it's probably the weirdest thing on here and that might be cause enough to keep it as it is. There's no doubting there are rewards aplenty for listening to this collection of songs over and over again – I've discovered new treats every time I've given it a spin and, perhaps most intriguing of all, it will take time to attempt to decipher those evocative lyrics. An excellent album and well worth the wait, Brock promises the band are well under way with another album now, one they promise they will bring out 'as soon as physically possible'… but it will be coming out on the Glacial Pace label again, so I wouldn't hold your breath!
Adam Kidd