Modest Mouse have been working on their new album for longer than many bands have existed. The breadcrumb trail of news reports depicting their progress over the years—they were recording with Krist Novoselic and Big Boi; they were switching producers—gave the worrying impression of a band that maybe didn’t know what the hell they were doing. In 2013, they canceled a tour to hit the studio, and somewhere in there founding bassist Eric Judy quit the band. The process left in its wake some dropped singles and a few different release dates, along with a lingering sense that maybe this venerable indie institution’s creative motor was stuck in neutral.
Strangers to Ourselves finally sees the light of day this week, and to hear Brock tell it, we’re getting another album "as soon as legally possible." They are back, in other words, and vigorously making up for lost time. For better and for worse, the album betrays no signs of its troubled birth. They might have spent eight years in the wilderness, but what they have delivered is…a Modest Mouse album, one that sounds like it could have been released five years ago. There are no new directions or tweaks to their approach. "Lampshades on Fire", the first single, is a good example. It offers a sort of greatest-hits version of all the sounds Modest Mouse have become known for—"Here’s the hard-swinging backbeat! Here are a few of those eerie-sounding harmonic guitar bends, and here are some tight, clipped 'bah bah bahs!'" Still, there’s satisfaction to be had, hearing this band of pros finding and hitting their marks so emphatically. They've been a touring juggernaut for years now, and you can imagine many of these songs exploding live.
Here and there some new flourishes pop up. The glimmering mallet percussion on "Ansel" is a nice touch, something we’ve never heard on a Modest Mouse record before. Opener "Strangers" is a patient and pretty ballad, featuring drowsy brush work by drummer Jeremiah Green, a prominent cello line, and Brock’s gentle, lilting midrange. The delicately fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure in the beginning of "Coyotes" is also lovely, a bit of late-period Beatles. "The Best Room" may or may not be inspired by a UFO sighting, as Isaac Brock coyly hinted in a recent interview. But the song is an unruffled and sweet pop-rock number that hits a feeling Modest Mouse never bothered with in their earliest days: It is sunny, optimistic, relaxed. Not even "Float On", their massive hit and a teeth-gritted ode to positivity, had this easy sense of goodwill to it.
At times, the record feels labored, like you can hear every studio session that went into its creation. By the time the metal guitars have crashed into "Sugar Boats"—and the tubas enter in a moment later, doubling over them—the song has grown both overwhelming and boring. "Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)", meanwhile, is an overcooked, clattering mess, a sloppy retread of "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" that might be the worst song Brock has ever recorded. On these moments, you get the sense the band simply recorded for eight years until someone told them to stop.
What’s ultimately missing are new ideas, or a fresh spin on their old ones. The lyrics, which used to be a very good reason to listen to a Modest Mouse record, are no longer the draw. Brock’s voice remains remarkable, an exclamation point he can bend into attention-getting shapes—a Tourette’s-like yelp, a heartburn-belch, a rooster crow. So lines like "We’re the sexiest of all primates" ("The Best Room") are simply awkward, like a party quieting down just as you shout something particularly banal.
Any band that stays together for nearly 20 years, transitioning from indie to major label, losing and gaining members along the way, is going to change. A long time ago, Modest Mouse were known for volatile, destructive behavior and piercing insights, but their last two albums have positioned them as paragons of alt-rock professionalism, a band that takes their fans and their albums seriously and think hard about how to deliver on their expectations. Here they sound like they’ve settled into their status as a reliable indie rock institution. Strangers to Ourselves is a pleasant album, and one that completes their transition from "inspired" to "sturdy".
