Modest Mouse
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

THE REVIEW

Here is the latest effort by Isaac Brock and company. This "We were dead...", in addition to continuing the series of albums with beautiful titles, is the successor to the controversial Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which for many (not for me) was the album of the definitive pop turn (kind of like Mango's rock turn but more easy-listening), as well as the definitive sellout to the indie audience. The album directly follows the path laid out by the previous one, but at the same time reclaims many elements from the major works "The Lonesome Crowded West" and "The Moon & Antarctica". An album that is Modest Mouse to the core, with crazy melodies, angular guitars and the usual wonderful voice of Brock, who delivers his best performance and rightfully enters the hall of fame of the best nasal & ungainly rock voices, alongside Tom Verlaine, Byrne, Gordon Gano, and Frank Black.
The much-touted former Smiths member Johnny Marr does his work excellently and the chemistry with the group is excellent.

It starts with March into the sea and it's a great beginning, with organs and chimes the atmosphere is immediately "ship of fools"... a great introduction for the single Dashboard, perhaps a bit too simple, but devilishly catchy. Fire it up slows down the pace and is quite hypnotic and enveloping, all played on the feedback of the big guitar. The production is crystal clear, something that might make some snobs turn up their noses; but never flat, always brilliant and precise: I would like to point out that even if the MM have somehow "sobered up" in the last two albums, we are still miles away from the average stuff on MTV. Parting of the sensory is one of the highlights; it starts slow and slowly transitions into a beautiful flamenco-style ending. It's one of those tracks that hints at how the band is now finally secure and in control of their means: if it may have lost something in terms of genuineness and urgency, it has certainly gained a lot in the ability to fully exploit the brilliant ideas, which perhaps in the past would have been thrown in without much care. Among other peaks are Missed The Boat, Little Motel, and People As Places As People, but in reality, what immediately catches the ear is how this time, unlike in previous albums, the quality remains consistent until the end, without those filler tracks (except, perhaps, We've Got Everything) that elsewhere were never missing.
The only flaw is perhaps the excessive length, 62 minutes, but in the face of such unpredictability, one does not tire easily. Probably one of my albums of the year.