History Sticks to Your Feet – Modest Mouse
I wasn’t tremendously enthusiastic about the latest Modest Mouse record (or, really, the one before that). And I’ve posted here a number of times before about my growing acceptance of the fact that while they might have had two or three of my favorite albums ever back in the late 90s/early aughts, they’ve gone a different direction these days. Tastes change, and so on.
They can still put out a song that absolutely burns though. “Spitting Venom” from the last record has grown on virtually every listen and I now think it ranks among their best. So I’ll take the great songs as they come and be satisfied with that, and not expect another Lonesome Crowded West.
And with the release of a new EP this year No One’s First and You’re Next, there’s more evidence for this. It’s composed of b-sides and extras from the last two records and demonstrates a lot of the unevenness, as well as some of the shades of brilliance.
I’d heard a few of these songs already. I’ve been listening to “I’ve Got it All (Most)” since 2004, and “King Rat” for a couple years now. I thought the former deserved a place on Good News… over plenty of tracks that did make the cut so it’s nice to see it pop up again here. “King Rat” however felt preposterous and overwrought the first time I heard it – and doesn’t gain anything from the new digs.
Of the other six tracks, there are some other lows. But the whole package would be worth it if only for the explosive “History Sticks To Your Feet.” Isaac’s got his bark going on to great effect, and the guitar tear everything apart – just like the staccato blade they used to wield back in the day. It’s the sort of track that reminds me of how brilliant these guys really are.
Elsewhere, “Satellite Skin” is a relatively serviceable variation on the sort of songs that populated We Were Dead… It’s a little bit less polished, which is only a good thing in my mind. It doesn’t blow you away, but it’s been growing on me the more I listen to it.
Less successful are “Autumn Beds” which has a nice enough acoustic guitar line but just can’t overcome the cracks in Isaac’s voice and “Perpetual Motion Machine” which has the same horns that I didn’t like back on Good News For People Who Love Bad News. Both of these songs suffer from their Tom Waits obsession, which has just never done anything for me.
And then there’s the rambling mess of “The Whale Song” which wanders around in a drunken stupor for about four minutes before everything blows up (in a good way). Without that payoff the long introduction could have felt like a monumental waste of time…but instead they only help build to the payoff.