What do people think of the new Modest Mouse album?

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I know it was released over a month ago but I haven't seen a topic about it. I have pretty much all their albums. It's been such a long time since their last one I thought maybe they were done.

To me, Strangers To Ourselves seems most comparable to The Moon and Antarctica emotionally. It's got the same balance of upbeat quirky jams and dark angsty existential-themed rock. It's also got that one abrasive earworm that everyone hates and wants to skip on the first few listens but then starts to like later on. "Pistol" is kind of analogous to "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes", only a bit more offensive. I guess it fits that it's about a psychopath.

I guess people expecting something completely original every album will complain. It sounds like Modest Mouse album and it rocks. That's good enough for me.

Okay. I guess aspies don't like Modest Mouse. Maybe I'm not an aspie. Damn, I'm feeling old too. It shouldn't be 2015. Guess I should delete this thread.

Well, you're on a forum filled with hardcore introverts. What do you expect?

I quite like "Strangers to Ourselves", but I'll be the first to admit that it's the only real exposure I've had to Modest Mouse. The first song I've heard from them is "Dark Center of the Universe", and there are a couple other tracks on that album that I enjoy listening to, but otherwise their older sound is a little rough-hewn for my tastes. Ironically - and somewhat resentfully - the pop sensibility is what got me into "Stranger to Ourselves" in the first place.

Not sure what you're saying. I'm an introvert. I'm just bored.


"Good News for People Who Love Bad News" and the album after that have pop sensibility as well. It's okay to like new stuff over the older stuff. It's also okay to just cherry pick songs you like. I'm not a judgmental hipster. I think the older albums like "Lonesome Crowded West" have more angst and more interesting lyrics, but sometimes I'm not in the right mood to want to listen that kind of music.

If you skip "Pistol", "Strangers to Ourselves" is smoother and easier to listen to in it's entirety. I'm still trying to figure out how to appreciate "Pistol" though. I think the music is supposed to be a joke. It's a mockery of really bad modern pop/dance music. It intentionally sounds terrible but is somehow catchy.

What I'm alluding to is the fact that response times will be a lot more atrocious here than on other forums. I've seen fresher threads sink down to the bottom of the first page after a day or two.

The reason I resent that pop sensibility has much to do with the fact that I never listen to pop anymore. Musically speaking I tend to stick to tougher fare - typically jazz, with the weirder tracks from Radiohead and other alternative rock bands finding a spot on my playlist. To need those vanilla C/G chords just to be able to sit through a song rubs me the wrong way.

Although, in retrospect, I figure my appreciation of "Strangers to Ourselves" has less to do with the fact that it's catchy - personally I adore "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes", it's one hell of a riot and musically interesting - and more with Brock no longer howling into the microphone. I get the catharsis. It's just an overall pain for me to listen to. I much prefer the subdued word-salad horror of Radiohead, or that tranquil rage from The Delgados.

Oh. I also like Radiohead. I really love "I Might Be Wrong". I like the weird and depressing stuff as the music often has a kind of "spot on" relation to how I feel and perceive things. It's just that I can't listen to an entire Radiohead album. I'm dealing with horrible depression and it just doesn't make me feel good anymore. It's either too bleak or too pretty, or both. That and some songs give me a really bad emotionally trapped claustrophobic isolated feeling that I associate with depression and I just can't deal with it. I prefer something with a little more raw energy, even anger.

"Strangers To Ourselves" is a little toned down compared to previous stuff, but it still rocks. It's fresh and it goes down a little easier than "The Moon and Antarctica". I'm really in the mood for new music that rocks hard and creates that dopamine rush of epic cathartic energy. Staring out the airplane window listening to "The Tortoise and the Tourist" gave me that feeling.

I have never heard of The Delgados.

You might want to avoid them in that case - The Delgados have written some dark, dark stuff. They were a great indie band (broke up some years ago), rather influential; but if you can't take that kind of energy right now, it may be best to put their albums in a bucket list.

I've been obsessed with "Kid A" over "Amnesiac" of the late, which has been a cathartic - although not entirely positive - experience. The babbling and nightmarish distortion does it for me - it's an album that has no mouth and yet must scream. Captures, impeccably, that yawning sense of aloneness.

Have you tried Thief's self-titled album? It's a grimmer and bleaker sound than "Strangers to Ourselves", but Snow has a lyrically clever, wicked rage. There's also Spoon and The Black Keys if you want something that better rides the line between depressive and energetic.

I actually listened to what I could of the Delgados on youtube. I really like what I've heard so far, especially "I Fought the Angels". What I've heard so far doesn't give me bad feelings. I have this album "Poise is the Greater Architect" by a California based indie rock band Ilya. I now see they probably got influence from the Delgados. Similar dramatic swelling emotions. Ilya leans more towards trip-hop and shoegaze though.


Exactly. I feel like a lot of music expresses things like sadness or angst. Most of the songs off those albums don't express that. They express something much more painful - a suffocating austerity.


I haven't.

Ilya...sounds familiar, but I'm not sure where I've heard the name from. Probably just in passing. How's their style?

I was puzzled for a time over what you meant by "suffocating austerity" (not actually the reason I kind of abandoned this thread for about a week though). It makes sense now - Kid A's themes of alienation tread well beyond the territory of standard depression - but I never quite got the usage of "austerity", perhaps because minimalism isn't the first thing that springs to mind whenever I listen to the album. For a few of the songs, maybe, but there's just so much memorable noise - it really is a kind of grand soundscape, in a way.

I dropped a link to Thief's "Snow" in my earlier post (kind of hard to see, since URLs aren't underlined on this forum), but Grooveshark is dead now so YouTube will have to suffice.

There's actually two bands by the name Ilya. I'm talking about the one from California. They released one album in 2002 (the one I mentioned) and then reformed and released another in 2012. Their style I would describe as dark and lush. Most songs start with a monotonous mechanical-sounding bass loop then repeatedly layer up and break down (loud/soft verse/chorus dynamic). The vocalist isn't nearly as talented as Beth Gibbons, but I'd compare it to Portishead's album "Third". It contains similar dark themes, but is more accessible. I guess I'd call it a cross between trip-hop (loopy sounds/beats) and dark dream-pop (very "thick" and "pretty" guitar distortion).


Maybe "austere" isn't the right word. I was grasping pretty hard for the right word. Certain songs are certainly lush in a way that isn't minimal. Some of the songs bring to mind a certain hardness and sterility though. Thom's otherworldly vocals are constantly drowning in oceans of harsh loopy noises and beeps. The emotions are simultaneously paranoid, explosive, and reticent. I picture someone slowly and helplessly slipping into insanity. It's surprising that so many people can identify with it. Maybe the theme is how this world can make a completely sane person feel insane. It isn't so much losing touch with reality as losing the ability to communicate feeling in an unfeeling world.


Okay. I'll listen to that.

The song you posted reminds me of The Mars Volta (minus the tedious filler). I like it a lot but it isn't really representative of the rest of the album. They have a lot of diversity to their music style while sounding vaguely "classic rock". Is there anywhere I can read the lyrics?

Really? I quite liked the guitar solo - not the most complex I've ever heard, but it made the track for me until I paid closer attention to the lyrics. Incidentally, the only other band I've been exposed to that utilizes long, mid-song instrumentals is Modest Mouse, which speaks either to my slow memory or the fact that my listening patterns are really quite rigid.

Unfortunately, no place to read the lyrics. There's a brief cameo from the lead singer in one of Jazzanova's songs, but nothing from this particular album. Damn shame, I think.

Hmm...well, you may have just sold a new band to me. I'll check them out. Might as well - have been getting a little too settled with the stuff I've been listening to for the past year, so perhaps it's time to look for a new sound.

Wonderfully said! I can see why you chose "austere", although I feel you're right in that it isn't quite the best word. Ironically, it's that existential bleakness which drives me toward Radiohead to begin with. I guess I'm a sucker for putting on negative songs when I'm in a bad way.

Before my current Radiohead binge (and shortly after I was looping stuff from Modest Mouse's albums), I was fixated for a time on Le Boeuf Brothers. Not sure if jazz is your thing, but they're a significant departure from classic styles and pull from all genres and artists - including, as it happens, Radiohead.

The jazziness and vocal style vaguely reminded me of The Mars Volta. That probably stood out not because the similarity is particularly strong, but because not many bands sound anything like The Mars Volta. It was probably the minor key on Snow as well. Other songs have more of a distorted bluesy psychedelic feel which fits more with the already established modern garage rock sound. They definitely have a unique sound though. The garage/prog-rock combo isn't something I've heard before.

I used to listen to The Mars Volta back in the early 2000s, but I admit I got kind of bored with all the ambient noise in "Frances the Mute". I could probably enjoy a 13+ minute song as a live version (they are good as a live jam band), but on the record the drones are just tedious. Sadly I ended up having to create my own edited version just to make it listenable. It's funny though, because I actually like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Even their most repetitive stuff isn't boring or pretentious sounding to me. I guess I just like listening to loud emotional sledge-hammers. I don't need too much nuance or subtlety. I kind of dig depressive black metal at times as well. I just like music that consumes me whole like a raging thunderstorm. It just has to be constantly going somewhere, not staying in one place.


I'll check that out. I can try picking up the lyrics myself. It usually takes quite a bit of listening for me to catch everything though.

Ilya might be a little simple for your taste, but they do the lush layering and emotion-laden breakdowns very well. I find "Poise is the Greater Architect" quite soothing despite its overall heaviness.


I used to be the same way. I think Radiohead just burned me out. I relate to the thing it's communicating musically, but it gets to be too much after a while. I think it's mostly the weird sounding vocals and strange lyrics on "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" that tires me out. If I listen to Radiohead I'm more likely to put on "In Rainbows" or even "The Bends". I want something poignant and pretty that makes me feel like I'm still a human being after all. I'm tired of being lost inside my own head. I want to connect with humanity. I don't want to feel insane and alone.


Thanks! I might check them out as well.