Modest Mouse
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
***
Underlining
their big ambitions, the Mouse audaciously recruited none other
than ex-Smiths guitar-hero Johnny Marr for album number seven,
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, sparking much
British media interest in a band otherwise little known on this
side of the Atlantic.
With
the exception of their previous album, Good News for People
Who Love Bad News, Modest Mouse’s earlier material
combined country-fried jamming with melancholic, fragile college
rock and Good News was a good-but-not-great big-budget
interpretation of the band’s sound.
Sticking
with Good News producer and former Throwing Muses cohort
Dennis Herring, We Were Dead sees Modest Mouse carrying
on in much the same vein, particularly on the brassy ‘Dashboard’,
with Isaac Brock’s yelping and Johnny Marr’s hyperactive
guitar work ably assisted by show-stopping, sweeping strings.
The
radio-friendly, three-and-a-bit-minute funk of ‘We’ve
Got Everything’ and ‘Florida’ hit the same target,
whilst ‘Missed The Boat’ demonstrates the band’s
ability to switch from shouty post-punk to introspective balladry.
The Shins’ James Mercer, whose ethereal vocals would be
a welcome presence on any record, guest stars on all three songs.
Like
its predecessor, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
occasionally meanders into dullness. ‘Parting of the Sensory’
shifts awkwardly from acoustic mithering to angular rock while
‘Little Motel’ and ‘Fire It Up’ are limp.
The album does regain focus towards its close, Marr’s fragile
guitar playing coming to the fore on the sweet ‘People As
Places As People’, and the Pixies-alike ‘Invisible’
ending proceedings on a high note.
Modest
Mouse should be credited for not succumbing to any major label
malaise. Isaac Brock’s vocals are as versatile, distinctive
and challenging as ever, and Johnny Marr’s influence is
subtle – he could have thrown his trademark Smiths jangle
into the Modest Mouse mix, the guitarist fits the band rather
than the other way around.
There
are no real clangers on this album but sometimes it feels like
the band is simply plodding along. The occasions Modest Mouse
do get it right, though, are fine slices of mainstream rock, if
not quite up to previous peaks like ‘Float On’, ‘3rd
Planet’ or ‘Dramamine’. Patchy, but worth a
listen.
by
Tom Blackburn
