A decade ago, the idea that Modest Mouse would have the #1 album in the U.S. seemed about as unlikely as a liberal African-American president. But sure enough, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank debuted strong back in 2007, and the initial shock turned first into living-in-the-future optimism and then into holy-shit-what-do-we-do-now jitters. Would Isaac Brock, you know, blink? Would Modest Mouse's follow-up be a Best Buy exclusive? Would their next single end up on a summer blockbuster soundtrack? (Do they even make soundtracks for summer blockbusters anymore?)
But the band's gradual acceptance via radio, commercials, and "American Idol" reveals the porousness of the 2000s mainstream rather than Brock's own career ambitions. Over six albums in 12 years, he has thought up countless metaphors to express the same cosmic anomie, and if his recent songs have displayed a sense of hopefulness and maybe even contentment, it sounds both more precarious and more intense following so many years of growling angst. It seems he can't be anything other than his usual weird self, as this new EP suggests.
No One's First and You're Next is not a real follow-up to We Were Dead. It collects eight songs dating as far back as 2005's Good News for People Who Love Bad News, all of which have been previously released in one form or another: some A- and B-sides from earlier this year, along with album outtakes like "King Rat", which is famous for having a video directed by Heath Ledger. A remora to the previous album's shark, No One's First recalls 1999's Building Nothing Out of Something and 2001's Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, both of which assembled leftovers into stand-alone statements that sound as cohesive as the material that fed them. Building in particular stands as one of the band's best releases of any length.
It's neither surprising nor especially troubling that No One's First sounds scattershot compared to those two releases. As the band has grown more popular, it has mutated considerably over the last two albums, making forays into more accessible pop as well as into stranger Dixieland territory and collaborating with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and former Smith Johnny Marr (both of whom appear here). So this EP has a lot of ground to cover, and does a decent job of portraying a band that can stretch itself from epic guitar workouts like "Whale Song" to straightforward singles like "Satellite Skin" to warped brass-band reimaginings like "Perpetual Motion Machine".
That makes No One's First-- all shortcomings aside-- an intriguing listen, one that presents Modest Mouse's defining characteristics intact even as it plays up new ones. "Perpetual Motion Machine" invites the Dirty Dozen Brass Band back for another round, their horns melting and flaring as Brock leads them in a sing-along about our own mortal fears. It's nothing new, but the central idea-- that we all want to keep moving forever-- puts an interesting spin on Brock's favorite subject. "Guilty Cocker Spaniels" and "King Rat" sound better for sounding more anthropomorphic, and yet for all their weirdness, the tracks barrel as forcefully as their singles, with Jeremiah Green's fluid drumming and the dense guitars matching Brock's fevered carnival barker delivery.
Especially considering the EP's title*, No One's First* opens and closely weakly. "Satellite Skin" is an adequate guitar jam and an obvious single in the vein of "Float On" and "Dashboard", albeit not nearly as catchy or as insistent, and "I've Got It All (Most)" never quite works up any real momentum to accompany its lyrical contradictions. It keeps trying to fade out long before it ends. On the other hand, the strongest part of the EP is its middle. Drawing from the same well as the opener and closer, "History Sticks to Your Feet" indulges the clash of frontwards and backwards guitar and the blistered staccato of Brock's bark to create the sense of rumbling rising action and thwarted release. On the other hand, he repeatedly rhymes "history" and "mystery," which seems a bit unimaginative for such a careful songwriter.
"Autumn Beds" seems to split the difference between the pop instincts of "Float On" and the rock anthems of "Little Motel" and "Trailer Trash", but comes out somewhere completely different. Brock can spit venom, but he can also write a supremely elegant melody, as he does here, and the banjogazer accompaniment bolsters the song-ending sing-along. In the EP's best sequencing flourish, "Autumn Beds" is followed by "Whale Song", a lengthy near-instrumental where the guitars sound like saxophones rather than maritime mammals. Set at a buzzy midtempo, it layers the guitars and later the vocals densely, recalling the scabrous attack of "Doin' the Cockroach" filtered through the stargazing sensibilities of "The Stars Are Projectors". Given its years-spanning tracklist, No One's First obviously has a retrospective flavor, but it also seems to point the way ahead for Modest Mouse, if only to suggest that the band will continue moving in opposite directions-- backwards and forwards-- all at once.
