Modest Mouse takes an electronic turn with their newest release "Strangers to Ourselves" from their latest album released in the UK Monday.
Modest Mouse fans have been waiting almost eight years for a follow-up to the band’s "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank," and the album releases in the U.S. Tuesday. Fortunately "Strangers to Ourselves" definitely delivers. The band's lead singer, guitarist, banjoist and songwriter, Isaac Brock, proves once again that the wait is always worth it — the band has done its notorious indie/underground rep justice.
Crediting five producers, this album is about as fragmented and eccentric as you would expect from a Modest Mouse release. The 15 tracks listed seem to reflect the chaos the band has experienced after departure of bassist Eric Judy in 2012. Stylistically, this album is all over the place and features more than the dream-like vocals of a typical Modest Mouse endeavor.
"Strangers to Ourselves" puts the band more at the modern-rock end of the musical spectrum, with songs like “Pistol” that showcase Brock’s infamous gusto. While this song hardly sets the tone for the entire album, it serves as an opener to the newfound pop excess that Modest Mouse has apparently adopted.
“The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box” and “Wicked Campaign” seem to indulge in the electronic soundscape, mixing synth solos with programmed new-wave beats. Bridging the gap between the band’s former oddball tempos and the newly found pop-inspired tunes, “Pups to Dust” sounds like a more polished version of a song you would hear on "The Lonesome Crowded West" with a disco twist.
Ending the album on a more melancholy note, Brock uses the song “Ansel” to muse about the recent death of his brother. With phrases like, “The last time that you ever see another soul” and “I made a mess of myself and the trip on the whole”, it’s a song that stands out on an overwhelmingly bold album.
While the tracks on this album differ greatly from one another, "Strangers to Ourselves" sets an overall electro-pop theme that veers from the group’s normal underground atmosphere. It certainly doesn’t come close to the likes of the great "Good News for People Who Love Bad News," but this benchmark album paves a new path for the band that waited years to give fans something to talk about.