On the Record: Modest Mouse

Artist : Modest Mouse
Album : Good News for People Who Love Bad News (Sony Music)

The only thing to indicate that this Washington-state quartet Modest Mouse is a band that hails from the indie music scene is the playful humor evident in title of their album. Their debut album in 1996 was titled ^YThis Is A Long Drive for Someone With Nothing To Talk About^Y, and their latest album suffers the same predicament of juxtaposition.

Compare this to indie rock originator Pavement, which christened their second and third records ^YCrooked Rain, Crooked Rain^Y and ^YWowee Zowee^Y respectively.

Antics aside, the music is far from modest and the lyrics are rife with deadpan irony. And if attitude matters more than art for most indie rockers, and it results at times in erratic and chaotic arrangement, Modest Mouse believes just the contrary.

In the opening track ^YThe World At Large^Y, Modest Mouse employs a lush Mellotron string orchestration. In other tracks, banjo, brass and timpani are used effectively to enrich the songs' texture and provide a soundscape against Isaac Brock's shape- shifting vocals.

Modest Mouse's attempt to depart from the indie rock stereotype has proven rewarding. Their first single on the album, Float On, was nominated for best rock song at this year's Grammys.

Mission accomplished. -- M. Taufiqurrahman