Part four and we're really in the good shit! We finally see Lonesome Crowded West make an appearance, Mouse's finest work. You should really listen along and enjoy the tunes as you read through this.
Modest Mouse combined harsh melodic rock with vulnerable, witty lyrics - with singer/songwriter Isaac Brock acting as the common man's David Foster Wallace, delivering succinct & peculiar insights into life that every teenager in America could relate to.
Disclaimer: I posted this list on an old message board nine years ago. This is the revamped & updated version. It doesn't contain songs released after 2008, cuz I don't know the newest album very well.
(80) Florida (We Were Dead)
Modest Mouse features Johnny Marr and James Mercer together here, a veritable indie rock supergroup on this track. This is an upbeat track, featuring several catchy sections. It starts out with the intro rock thing, chills out for a bit, and then gets heavier for the end. The middle of We Were Dead is a little weak, but Fire It Up and Florida kick things back into high gear.
It was always worth it
That's the part I seem to hide
And the busy ant empire
Put all your clothes inside
(79) A Life of Arctic Sounds (Building Nothing Out of Something)
This is another one of the many classic songs off of Modest Mouse's most underrated release, Building Nothing Out of Something. I don't know why this works. The lyrics are so simple, yet the repetition really hammers in the feeling of the song - a long fucking drive (with nothing to think about?). Also, this is one of several songs where Isaac uses the phrase "well I might be goddamned", which apparently he likes to use a lot.
100 miles is a long drive inside a car
200 miles is a long drive inside a car
300 miles is a long drive inside a car
400 miles is a long drive inside a car
500 miles is a real long drive inside a car
600 miles is a long drive inside a car
700 miles is a long drive inside a car
800 miles is a long drive inside a car
900 miles is a long, long, long, long ways in a car
1000 miles is a long drive inside a car
1100 miles is too far inside a car
(78) Dashboard (We Were Dead)
I got into Modest Mouse back in 2005, so We Were Dead was the first Modest Mouse album that I had to wait for and feed off of singles and all that. It almost seemed foreign at the time. A new Modest Mouse album? What? Modest Mouse seemed like some amazing band from long ago, with a big discography that I loved but that would never get anything more from. Then this single came out, and I wondered what the fuck was going on. Dancey rock? A cheesy sampled string melody? A conventional song structure? What?! When the album came out, though, and I calmed down, I realized that this is actually a very good song. Maybe not one of the best, but definitely worthy of standing alongside the rest of their work. Except for those string samples.
Well we scheme and we scheme but we always blow it
We've yet to crash, but we still might as well tow it
Standing at a light switch to each east and west horizon,
Every dawn you're surprising,
and in the evening one's consoling
(77) Night On The Sun (Parlour Tricks)
This song sounds like it belongs on Moon and Antarctica. It's a seven minute slow burn jam - there were probably too many chill tracks already on M&A to fit it on there. Still, if you haven't listened to this EP - you're missing out on this one.
Well there's one thing to know about this town
It's five hundred miles underground; it's alright, It's alright,
Well there's one thing to know about this globe
It's bound and it's willing to explode. it's alright, it's alright, it's alright,it's alright.
(76) King Rat (Single)
This is a single that didn't get included on We Were Dead, but is going to be on a future, currently unnamed EP that Modest Mouse is releasing soon (ed: No One's First and You're Next). This song is really good, but I feel like it gets a little weaker during the second half. The beginning is this great folky jam and then it goes into the "deep water deep water" thing which is just a little weird. It definitely brings the feeling of being underwater, though, so I guess they succeeded there. Am I the only one who doesn't really like the continued water/ship motif, though?
Deep water, deep water
Senseless denial
I went down like a rag doll as you would, child
(75) Might (Long Drive)
This is a really catchy song and I enjoy it a lot. The lyrics in this one reference Isaac Brock's broken jaw - he was punched in the face at random on the street one day. Terrifying. Anyway, the point is, this is a fun song and I enjoy it a lot.
I might
And you might
But neither of us do, though
And neither of us will
Yesterday night I broke every bone in my jaw
Thought so hard its the last thing I ever thought
(74) Grey Ice Water (Building Nothing Out of Something)
This is another great song off of Building Nothing. It's got a real neat electric guitar intro, and then it kicks in with everything else. The lyrics of this song are particularly great. Isaac uses the "path of least resistance" theme again here.
you're standing by the grey ice water
out in the wind above ground out in the weather
you had yourself a crazy lover
becoming frozen trying hard to forget her
(73) Broke (demo) (Interstate 8)
This song is so great that even its demo gets high up on the list. Broke's lyrics are simple but incredibly clever and work perfectly with the song. Obviously, this a demo, and the real version is in much better quality and all, but this song is so good that I could enjoy listening to it in any form.
broke a promise cause my car broke down
such a classic excuse it should be broke by now
(72) Breakthrough (Long Drive)
This song is deceptive in that seems pretty simple at first, but if you really listen to it, it actually goes through a lot of different parts and has a lot going on. It's a great catchy song. The guitar has a really weird tone. I think the "let it breakthrough oh let it breakthrough" chorus is pretty catchy, as well.
Open the curtain and let in some sky
it's almost half past two, and you can tell by the light
Open your window, and let in the atmosphere!
Let it breakthrough, oh let breakthrough
(71) Custom Concern (Long Drive)
This is one of three Modest Mouse songs to have background vocals from Nicole Johnson, who doesn't appear on any of their other releases. This one also has some cello in it, which is another common feature of the songs off Long Drive. Overall, this is a really nice, relaxing song, other than Isaac's vocals being a bit rough, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but kinda pulls you out of that relaxed mood a bit.
I get up just about noon
My head sends a message for me
To reach for my shoes then walk
Got to go to work, got to go to work, got to have a job
70. Long Distance Drunk (Lonesome Crowded West)
Long Distance Drunk clocks in as the lowest ranked Lonesome song on this list. It's a very good song. It's got a really weird feeling about it, with the whole thing being very thick and bass-y, other than a few hi hat/snare hits, and the vocals, which stand out. It's got a very repetitive feel to it, but in a way that's executed really well. Lonesome Crowded West is one of my favorite albums, so the fact that this is ranked on the bottom of that album is not at all a bad thing.
Hang it up now or never
Hang it up again
(Hang it up now or never)
Hang it up now or never
Hang it up again
(69) The Devil's Workday (Good News)
This is one of the weirder songs from this album. It's a pretty simple folk thing, with Isaac Brock singing menacingly about death, except with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in the background going crazy. The bending cracking horns going everywhere throughout the song makes it awesome.
I could buy myself a reason.
I could sell myself a job.
I could hang myself for treason.
For I am my own damn god.
68. March Into The Sea (We Were Dead)
March Into The Sea is the slightly bizarre conclusion to We Were Dead. It's a drunken triplet-feel song using a motif of the sea in the lyrics (like the rest of the album), in this case "march[ing] into the sea". The song's structure feels a little strange to me, because the way that it flows through the different chord progressions and parts of the song is a bit random and haphazard. It's interesting to follow the flow. I love the very last drum thing, where it switches into 4/4 for just a single measure as the very last part of the album.
Bang your head like a gong
Because it's filled with all wrong
A ha ha!
Clang, clang, clang!
(67) Black Cadillacs (Good News)
This is a very good song off of Good News. It's classical-ish with a neat guitar line coming in and the drums going a bit more normal for a second towards the middle/end. That's probably the most interesting part of the song, though the chorus is very catchy and the whole song is good.
And it's true we named our children
After towns that we've never been to.
And it's true that the clouds just hung around
Like black Cadillacs outside a funeral.
(66) Willful Suspension of Disbelief (Parlour Tricks)
This is a pretty standard song from M&A era Modest Mouse. Lots of studio effects, reversed sounds, repetition, a very spacey sound, and an overall chill atmosphere. There are also some great lyrics that you're likely to not notice if you aren't listening for them. Isaac Brock proved that he could do a lot more than just indie-rock with his songs from M&A and Parlour Tricks.
It's all so plain to most everyone
The sky doesn't ever end
The air just gets much thinner further up
You could keep diggin' down and down
A thousand graves down without turnin'
Around or finding hell
(65) Space Travel is Boring (Long Drive)
This is a song that I overlooked for a very long time, until Mark Kolozek covered it on his Modest Mouse tribute album 'Tiny Cities' (which I highly recommend). After that, I realized how good a song this is. It clocks in at just two minutes long, at the very end of Long Drive, and makes use of a really interesting rhythmic pattern, with the start-stop drums and quick vocals in certain parts, and other parts being much more chill and relaxed. Also, the lyrics on this one are really good.
Shes the only rocketeer in the whole damn place
They gave her a mirror so she could talk to a face
She still got plenty lonely but thats just the case
With time, time, time
(64) Trucker's Atlas (Lonesome Crowded West)
This song has an incredible groove which lasts throughout the whole song, and I like the lyrics a lot, but I think the jam at the end goes on for too long. Nothing really happens in it, so it's basically just a five minute repeated thing forever with a few variations.
I'm going up
going over to Montana
You got yourself a trucker's atlas
You knew you were all hot, well
Maybe you'll go and blow a gasket
(63) Blame it on the Tetons (Good News)
This is one of the most subdued songs on this album, featuring acoustic guitar and drums with brushes, amongst other things. This is a bit unlike most Modest Mouse songs in that it's pretty much one style for the whole thing. The song doesn't do their common thing of going through a bunch of different loosely related parts, and it's a full five minutes long. It's a very good song, though. Josh Ritter's cover of it is cool, too.
No, my dog won't bite you
Though it had the right to
You ought to give her credit
Because she knows I would've let it happen
(62) Head South (Long Drive)
You can definitely see the Pixies influence on this song, like a lot of Long Drive songs. Lighter verses followed by screamed choruses? With a female vocalist harmonizing, even? Sounds like the Pixies to me. With that said, it's still very much a Modest Mouse song, and a really good one. I actually love the chorus of this song, which is the main reason that I enjoy it so much, though the rest of the song is also good. This is just another Long Drive song, pretty much - some sort of form, an extended instrumental break, all that. You know the deal.
Struck by being ashamed of your old space
Just wanting that mean heat
You bleached your hair
And you pawned your skis
And then you sold out for the
Shape of the palm tree scene
(61) Here It Comes (Parlour Tricks)
This is a really catchy song. I love the delayed drum hit at the end of every two measures for a lot of the song - it's a really small detail, but it's really neat sounding. This song is very nicely put together and the result is definitely more the sum of its parts. Parlour Tricks has a lot of nice songs that I hadn't really noticed before I made this list - it's definitely a great EP.
Walked to your house on my lunch break, here it comes
Come inside and pour a drink, here it comes
You'll probably tell me everything you think, here it comes
The place and the time when we knew everything could go wrong