On “Remember Yourself,” a elegiac, artfully shambling highlight from the new Modest Mouse album, Isaac Brock gives us lines that might as well as advertising copy for the record: “Try to maintain an open mind/But if things aren’t working, don’t you waste your time/Yeah, it can be trippy, and it can be fine.” At once open-minded, trippy, and more or less fine, Modest Mouse’s first new work since 2021’s The Golden Casket finds the man behind one of alt-rock’s long-running success stories taking stock in the meaning of life and the weight of existence over songs that ramble and tamble, at times tilting towards glory, in other moments coming relatably unglued.
It’s being released on Brock’s own Glacial Pace Records, after a long run on major label Epic that included 2004’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News, containing the surprise hit “Float On,” and 2007’s comparatively ornery We Were All Dead Before The Ship Sank. That run ended with The Golden Casket, which opened with the less than inviting “Fuck Your Acid Trip,” and drifted from the kind of spacious, slippery guitar escapades the band does well towards glitchier abstractions, and felt like a forced artistic end-point. This makes An Eraser and a Maze their first album on an indie label since their 1997 masterpiece The Lonesome Crowded West.
Their newest roams freer musically, with an unburdened wandering feel. Despite its dubious title, opener “Picking Dragon’s Pockets” has a bright melody and cagey rhythm that’ll make “Float On” fans feel at home. Brock surveys a world of cultural commodification where “we’ve been eating our own,” then sums up his survivor’s spirit with lines like “The looked-at side of a microscope/Voice to skull, try to crush your soul/But we’re pretty tricky little animals.” On “Life’s A Dream,” latticed guitars stretch out over booming drums and rumbling bass, as Brock works to convince himself that the song’s title might be more or less accurate, even as he savors its irony. “Third Side of the Moon” is a glowering, bitter reckoning with grief, beginning stark and foreboding and only getting more dire from there.
It’s one of many moments here in which Brock masticates his feelings about mortality, a longstanding theme for him. Lately, those intimations have hit closer to home. In 2022, drummer Jeremiah Green, the band’s longest standing member other than Brock, died. On “Rotten Fruit,” a violent mix of agitated guitars and crinkly beats, he offers “Inside of every grave I know I’ve found a favorite friend,” adding “life is a simple equation but I refuse to do the math.” The 1:15 acoustic fragment “Knocked Down By Waves” finds him repeating the title phrase like a resigned mantra.
Modest Mouse have always been at their best when their music balances odd structure and inviting texture. With veteran producers like alt-rock hand Jackknife Lee and Charli XCX assist man Justin Raisen on board, as well as the band’s crack current lineup (which includes Sleater-Kinney/Quasi drummer Janet Weiss on one track), that elliptical magic happens more often than not. “Speak N Spell (Or Not)” is a iridescent guitar nod that is every bit as sweet as the best moments on The Lonesome Crowded West. But there are also moments where the music seems to meander without as much payoff, such as the rambling man’s take on iPhone alienation “Can’t Talk Right Now” or the New Wave-tinged “Absolutely Necessary Never,” cool ideas never quite materialize as great songs. The LP’s short interlude tracks add to the album’s at times formless feel. Yet, even these inchoate moments deepen the music’s sense of honest confusion. Isaac Brock has seen a lot, and felt a lot, and he’s trying to figure it out. That messy process is at the heart of his enduring appeal.
Steve Cohen*
Paul Heartfield*
