Huzzah! An official release date is out for the new record from Modest Mouse. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is due out on March 20. You can pre-order your copy through iTunes and get an immediate download of “Dashboard” – the first single. It’s good, and certain to whet your appetite for the whole thing.
Combine this with Neon Bible from Arcade Fire coming out on March 6, and it’ll be one of the biggest months for new records in a long time.
Still, as excited as I am about a new record from Modest Mouse, I am tempering my hopes a bit. I’ve loved their newer stuff, and have every confidence this one will be good, too, but I’m not holding my breath for something that matches the raucous, loose, sprawling opuses of their early days. Specifically, as great as Johnny Marr is, I’m not sure the guitar sound he’s going to bring will be the same as the one that just tore me to pieces back on Lonesome Crowded West.
In part it’s just because that sound was so unique – incredibly simple yet completely ineffable. If you haven’t got that one out in a while, or have never heard it, let me strongly recommend a return to their back catalog. From the gloriously despondent yet explosive “Trailer Trash” to the lurching almost-pop mess of “Polar Opposites” to the hurricane of “Doin’ the Cockroach” to “Bankrupt on Selling,” which makes you wonder how something so lo-fi can sound so ethereal, to that drum kick at 2:40 on “Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright” which initiates the final descent into chaos – this is a truly astonishing record.
Beyond the sound, it also has some of the best lyrics of the modern rock era. For example: “The match of the century, absence vs. thin air” or “I didn’t move to the city, the city moved to me, and I want out desperately” or “I’m trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away.” And I’m obviously partial to “Taking heartache with hard work / Goddamn, I am such a jerk / I can’t do anything.”
And as if that all weren’t enough, the opening song alone covers most of this territory – with blistering guitars, brilliantly surrealist imagery, and some of the best loud/soft dynamics in rock history. It’s not (quite) my favorite song, but I would be hard-pressed to think of many that are better:
This is what I mean about Johnny Marr. I’m definitely curious to see what his style will bring to the mix, and I’m sure it will be good, but I’m not sure how anything could be as transcendent as the guitar on this song. Which isn’t really a criticism so much as it’s a statement of how absurdly good Lonesome Crowded West really was. And who knows, maybe they’ll raise the bar yet again.