Modest Mouse

The Golden Casket

Image of Modest Mouse - The Golden Casket

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Brock’s newfound bruised optimism sent the album that the single appeared on, 2004’s ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’, into the stratosphere, turning the local yokels from America’s Pacific Northwest into Platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated titans of the ‘00s indie scene. It’s a mindset that the six-piece also explore on their seventh record, ‘The Golden Casket’, albeit with the good news dialled up and the bad news dialled down.

The album is a masterful psychedelic patchwork, bouncing between eerie soundscapes (opener ‘Fuck Your Acid Trip’), knotty post-punk (‘Walking And Running’) and maximalist pop melody (the ludicrously good fun ‘The Sun Hasn’t left’). Sometimes they combine all three elements on the same song, as on turbo-charged indie anthem ‘We Are Between’, the album’s massive lead single.

In a recent interview with NME, the 45-year-old frontman explained that ‘The Golden Casket’ was inspired by both domestic bliss – he’s had two children since the last Modest Mouse album, 2015’s less accessible ‘Strangers To Ourselves’ – and his general baked-in pessimism: “I don’t think shit’s gonna get easier for everyone… [But] I just had to kinda look at that and find a way to make it sound OK.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This sounds like Classic Modest Mouse, catchy guitar riffs and Brock's recognisable vocal talents, but there are moments here of typically odball MM behaviour (thank goodness), with blipping synth lines and angular, sudden stylistic shifts. It's been a long five years, but the result is entirely worth it. A brilliantly bright and wonderfully fun record.

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