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Good News for
People Who Like Modest Mouse
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Modest
Mouse: Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Epic, 2004
Rating: 4.0
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Posted: April 7,
2004
By
Laurence Station
Good News for People Who Love Bad News finds Seattle-based indie
rock stalwarts Modest Mouse in a transitional phase. The band's more
indulgent tendencies (unwieldy, directionless jams; unfocused,
splatter-effect lyrics) have been reigned in, in favor of exploring a
unifying theme (the indifference of God). Now a quartet, Modest Mouse has
yet to make a singularly coherent statement, but on its fourth full-length
it shows it's a more mature, musically proficient unit. Good News
could well be looked back on as the band's rite of passage, filled with
energetic but reckless noisemakers and more studied, stylistically
adventurous tracks.
Not that singer/lyricist Isaac Brock's general disposition sounds any
sunnier than it has on previous releases. "I still haven't got anywhere
that I want," he laments on "The World at Large." A hyper-aware feeling of
discontent permeates Good News, a resigned sense that Death's
sickle hangs expectantly in the air. Where The Moon & Antarctica
took a cosmically broad perspective on life, Good News is decidedly
earthbound, and covered in more mud than a gravedigger on a rainy day. The
furious, maniacally grim "Bury Me With It" examines taking "it" with you
("it" representing everything from money in your pocket to the air we
breathe), and at under four minutes, it embodies the notion that this
formerly meandering outfit is battening down the hatches of its songcraft
while retaining its preferred atmosphere of stormy, hyperactive chaos.
Thematically, much of Good News dwells on the role of God in the
world. Brock forcefully addresses the notion of a formless, abstract
architect of the universe, abandoning its handiwork after the initial
design is finished. On "Bukowski" he vents, "If God takes life, he's an
Indian giver," while railing about what a control freak God is in the
first place. The brief but excellent "This Devil's Workday" (featuring a
smoldering horn section courtesy of
The
Dirty Dozen Brass Band) is anchored by the defiant phrase "I am my own
damn God," and flames out with a spot-on, throaty laugh worthy of
Tom Waits, whose stylistic influence permeates the track. Brock
doesn't reconcile his feelings about a Divine overseer so much as he
expresses frustration at an often arbitrary and cruel world where
seemingly good and decent people die while far less deserving souls
prosper.
Mirroring the album's thematic cohesion, Good News showcases a
Modest Mouse that has never sounded better musically. Bassist Eric Judy
gets to show off his skills on the funky, vibrant "The View," while new
drummer Benjamin Weikel's staggered-beat dynamics shine on the fantastic
"Satin in a Coffin." Guitarist Dann Gallucci (last heard with the band on
1994's Sad Sappy Sucker) helps flesh out the overall sound, and
also allows for Brock to concentrate on a variety of other instruments,
from banjo to Rhodes piano.
Good News falters after a late-sequenced, organ and baby-noise
interlude, although having an utterly guileless infant appear after so
many tracks dealing with mortality and spiritual hand-wringing is a
brilliant stroke. "Blame It on the Tetons" brings whatever momentum has
been established to a screeching halt, and neither "Black Cadillacs" nor
"One Chance" measures up to what has come before. Fortunately, the closing
"The Good Times Are Killing Me," a collaboration with the Flaming Lips,
reveals Brock utilizing his strangulated falsetto to great effect,
wistfully opining on what a bummer too much of a good thing (read: drugs)
can be, while backed by a drowsily hypnotic beat and nervously spirited
pump organ.
The good news for Modest Mouse fans is that the band has crafted its
strongest work to date. But what it truly hints at is just how great the
group can be when all its ducks are lined up. Hopefully, the
apocalyptically tenebrous Brock will stick around the music business (and
the planet) long enough to exhaust its full potential.
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