This assemblage of b-sides from Modest Mouse’s last two studio LPs
(2004’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News and 2007’s We
Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) sounds the part. Songs like
opener “Satellite Skin” and “Autumn Beds,” while pleasant, are bland
and unmemorable. But then there’s showstopper “King Rat,” which opens
with Isaac Brock’s yelps, a good-time guitar shuffle and a beautiful
cello line, and ends with Brock shrieking, “What do you have to say for
yourself?” over demented horns and jagged guitars. It will scissor into
your heart and remind you that even a mediocre Modest Mouse album is
better than none at all.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2009.