Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse
Track List:
Horn Intro
The World At Large
Float On
Ocean Breathes Salty
Dig Your Grave
Bury Me With It
Dance Hall
Bukowski
This Devil’s Workday
The View
Satin In A Coffin
Interlude (Milo)
Blame It On the Tetons
Black Cadillacs
One Chance
The Good Times Are Killing Me
I enjoy listening to Modest Mouse
Which seems to be a weird thing to say when I think this was their most successful album and I am about to listen to it as a new experience. My previous experience with Modest Mouse includes seeing this album in a friend's car when I was a teenager and I downloaded a bunch of songs of theirs from LimeWire or BearShare or some other peer to peer network in 2005. Looking over the song list I can confidently say I’ve listened to Float On, Ocean Breathes Salty, and The Good Times Are Killing Me. I think I’ve heard Horn Intro. And just recently I learned about Charles Bukowski so the song Bukowski is intriguing as I wonder if it’s an ode to an alcoholic, womanizing poet and novelist. Anyways what caused me to pick this album today was the band recently released a new version of Ocean Breathes Salty which was pretty neat to listen to, and the band is touring but the ticket cost is a bit more than I want to drop to see them, perhaps this listen will move my frugality.
Horn Intro
Yes I have heard this before, not really anything to say about it.
The World At Large
I have heard this one before as well but I don’t know it. The song is simple sounding, a droning guitar and sparse percussion set stage for the vocals. The lyrics seem to tell about moving on when you encounter adversity and soon feeling as if you no longer have any control. I like how the song decays into Float On.
Float On
This was the second Modest Mouse song I recall hearing, first was Dramamine. This was a big musical departure from The World At Large, completely different soundstage, other than perhaps the droning guitar. It’s a song about optimism, we’ll float on, good news is on the way.
Ocean Breathes Salty
I really like the guitar play after the chorus, the ethereal guitar mimicking the vocal lines of the verse. I think this song is an agnostic look upon loss. Looking at what if’s and hypotheticals after the loss of a loved one and this is almost an internal dialog of wondering what happens after death and hopes for an afterlife but doubt as well.
Dig Your Grave
This is a huge sonic difference from the last song but carries over the themes. Wishing that someone were dead and then after that happens wishing they weren’t, or wishing they were a zombie?
Bury Me With It
Almost an industrial beat. Nearly spoken word delivery of the lyrics. I recognize the chorus, it’s striking. The lyrics seem to tell about living a reckless lifestyle. Very similar attitude to live fast and die young. The narrator seems to realize that he is on a dangerous path but feels a bit powerless to stop.
Dance Hall
Taken at face value. The narrator wants to do drugs and dance all day, he feels that he is the main character. Dare I call this a punk song.
Bukowski
Much more pleasing to the ears than the previous song. So the narrator is reflecting on life and feels his life more and more like the life of Charles Bukowski’s with each passing day. At the same time he acknowledges that Bukowski was an asshole. The lyrics grow more cynical over the course of the song, including questioning god and their motivations.
This Devil’s Workday
A complete reprise of the first song and then some. A slow roll contrasted by wind instruments. The narrator seems to think he is very important to the world, placing himself over all those people you know. He doesn’t seem to care about others, including killing a sack of puppies in the song, eating an entire wedding cake, freeing potted plants, and declaring himself a god. The song works well as an outro to Bukowski.
The View
Another song that I’ve heard before. This song is about nobody winning an argument. Both parties involved said things they regret and now feel bad about it. The lyrics also could be used to describe my relationship or experiences with anti-depressant meds, the line “If life’s not beautiful without the pain Well, I’d rather never-ever even see beauty again” reminds me of what I felt like the last time I was taking antidepressants, not feeling down but also not feeling up either, just flat. I hated the feeling, while he was begging for it.
Satin In A Coffin
Banjo to start? Really not sure about the meaning of this one. Seems to contrast with Dig Your Grave.
Interlude (Milo)
Organs and a baby.
Blame It On the Tetons
This one seems more bare than most of the other songs on the album. It is a look on credit and blame we share and give in life.
Black Cadillacs
The vocals are layers, one sung and another recorded spoken. The lyrics tell about the end of a relationship with kids. There are allusions to hearses so I am not sure if one partner just left or if they died.
One Chance
A look at life and things that matter to the narrator but also his difficulty in maintaining the relationships that he states matter to him.
The Good Times Are Killing Me
Before I listen and read the lyrics, to me this song has always been about the realization that the narrator’s lifestyle is actively resulting in his demise. I didn’t know that the Flaming Lips were the folks at the start of this song. And a study of the lyrics, my previous understanding of the song was correct, almost seems to be comparing and contrasting the benefits and hindrances of drug use.
I had heard a good portion of this before but there was new material for me
And it was as good as I had expected. I knew going into this that I like Modest Mouse and honestly I wanted to listen to an album that I had some familiarity with. Thinking about some of the more recent music I’ve heard from them I believe that the band has not moved away from drug use but perhaps has become more responsible with it?
