Modest Mouse Releases First Album In 6 Years to Bring Joyful Chaos to Your Ears

The Golden Casket by Modest Mouse Cover Art

4.3 out of 5 Stars

The new album from Modest Mouse is called The Golden Casket, and it features some songs that seem to be a bit scattered on the surface. However, the classic up-tempo refrains of lead singer Isaac Brock connect even the strangest songs on the album back to their core sound.

I will admit that I am not a hardcore Modest Mouse fan, but I do like quite a few songs of theirs.

Normally I struggle to get through an album or more than like 4 songs in a row of theirs just for the sheer fact that in a lot of ways it seems they create music to not sound the way your brain expects to hear music.

I am not sure how to explain that exactly, but between the odd timings, the strange added noises and instrumentation, and the lyrics and vocals battling from topic to topic at varying volumes and tones, the music can start to just seem too disjointed at times.

I know that Modest Mouse does this on purpose, because most musicians hate playing the same sounding music too often. It makes sense.

The Golden Casket is no different.

You have songs like “Fuck Your Acid Trip” and “Transmitting Receiving” that are just not what you might expect from Modest Mouse. It’s a bit more like Butthole Surfers (anyone remember them?).

However, this album has some REALLY big positives, and I am not going to say that those odd ducks don’t belong on the album. It helps diversify the album. It just may mean it is a bit harder to listen front to back too many times.

The best songs on the album are “Wooden Soldiers”, “Lace Your Shoes”, “Japanese Trees” and “Back to the Middle”, in my opinion.

“Lace Your Shoes” resonates with me personally as I am a new dad, and it is all about looking forward to the growth and development of your child. Not something I am sure I have ever seen from Modest Mouse before...unless I have just overlooked their lyrics too frequently.

I would say that if you like Modest Mouse, then you will really enjoy the variation in this album. 

If you haven’t listened to Modest Mouse much in the past, but you know of their songs like “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty”, then this is a pretty good album to check out as it has a mix of humor, positivity, and opining that gives you the whole shebang when it comes to what to expect from a Modest Mouse record.

Musically, you will get enough variation to see how talented and creative these guys are as well.

I would say that I am not sure that any single song on this album is just so good that I want to listen to it again and again, but there aren’t any songs on the album that I just flat out don’t like either.

 

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