Modest Marr! We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

8.5/10

Of course the big story of this very young decade is the union of Modest Mouse and Johnny Marr. The fact that this has created such a dust-up in the indie scene is no surprise, after all this event is tantamount to Keith Richards leaving the Rolling Stones and hobbling off on tour with the Strokes, a moment that is at once satisfyingly surreal and unsettling.



The surprise in this event is the music that comes out of this particular collaboration. Modest Mouse is a strange band, and the lineup has gone through many changes with the only static members being Isaac Brock, Jeremiah Green and Eric Judy but the music has always spoken for itself, but with the huge breakthrough that was Good News For People Who Love Bad News the albums went from sparse lo-fi indie excursions into Brock's heavy headed consciousness to glossily produced frenetic optimism. The beauty of the novelty hit "Float On" will be difficult to recapture which is something that Epic is surely counting on; but this album has so many gems it's almost impossible to care if anyone but the diehards notice.

The album starts with a song staying close to the nautical theme of the title "March Into the Sea", one of the first songs I've heard that enticed me to bang my head to accordion licks. "Dashboard" is the obvious reach toward "Float On" success but this song does not fall flat in the same way that you would expect it too. The tune swoons in and out of a disco beat carrying the anthemic chorus along verses like the dashboard melted/but we still had the radio and the windshield was broken/but I love the fresh air you know. "We've Got Everything" kicks up more of that same radio friendly gold dust and keeps its indie cred very much intact, James Mercer's back up vocals are distinctly noticable among the ruckus but are brilliantly appropriate and add a much needed sweetness behind Brock's growling yelp.



"Little Motel" is the best example of Johnny Marr's influence on the band's new music, anyone who has ever heard the guitar line to the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" can recognize the person behind the ax on this album. Marr brings his atmospheric skill to Modest Mouse's already very agile music and makes it more sinewy and more languid. "Invisible" and "People as Places as People" are also perfect examples.

Ever since 2004 Modest Mouse has been standing on the brink of either pandering to the masses or making music that remained true to the spirit of their indie roots and I have to say that this album is the proof that Brock & Co. will continually remain the spit-fire curmudgeons they always have been.