I meant so far but you guys knew that lol.

Album Rating: 4.5

"200 years old."

Close, I'm in my 30s. Which I've been informed means I'm already in the grave in the minds of the burgeoning youth of the internet.

Album Rating: 2.0

Hawks, I LOL'd at your 2.5 rating for Daydream Nation. This website needs more people like you.





Bubble, if you are in your 30s, then we aren't that far apart, age-wise.

Album Rating: 4.5

Goddamn it, new page. Every damn time.

So cold, so alone up here.



Hello fellow pop pop. Listen to any good radio stories lately? Wanna settle in to a nice episode of I Love Lucy?

Album Rating: 2.0

Did you seriously join in 2015? Did you have a different account before this one?





Hello fellow pop pop. Listen to any good radio stories lately? Wanna settle in to a nice episode of I Love Lucy?



LMAO

Album Rating: 4.5

Yep, just this account made one on a whim one day.

Enough about me, album rules.

Album Rating: 5.0

Band's best album is actually Good News, everyone else be trippin

Album Rating: 4.5

That 5.0 review of yours is 2 years old now and I still think of it every time I see your name. Or maybe cause we only seem to meet in these MM threads where you have to defend Good News all the time.

Good News is def not their best, but I admire your dedication to your lady fair.

Album Rating: 5.0

Hey, somebody's gotta step up. If nothing else I try to convince people that, at the very least, it is not pop-infused. In fact, it's rather strange at parts. The REAL culprit of being 'mainstream' is We Were Dead...

Album Rating: 4.5

I don't know about that. We Were Dead is definitely worse, but Good News will always sound like watered down "indie-ish" stuff on a big label to me. Feel like it was way too big of a departure from their sound to be considered "natural". Plus too many people added to the band and no Jerry Green (I think).

Album Rating: 5.0

Not as big of a departure as one may think. There was still a lot of subtlety to them, that delicate composition nature wrapped under lurking existentialist drama. "World at Large" and "Ocean Breathes Salty" aren't as far removed from this album as they're said to be.



Now is there pop influence? Absolutely, no disputing that. But the degree to which it exerts itself on their sound is exaggerated. I don't think stuff like "Satin in a Coffin" or "This Devil's Work Day" are standard label fare.

Album Rating: 4.5

While this album has its moments of studio trickery, Good News (and by extension World at Large and Ocean Breathes Salty) are smothered in production tricks. And Satin in a Coffin and Devil's Work Day were exactly what I was thinking of when I said "watered down 'indie-ish' stuff".

Good News kind of lives in this gray area of staying true to their indie roots or going whole hog into the alternative sound. But if that was their intent, then good on them, cause that album still holds up pretty well and I still listen to it every so often. It's just not as good as it could have been.

Whale Song off that 2009 EP is one of my favorite MM songs and I think it's a perfect balance of an indie and alternative sound. I think if Good News sounded like that, it would've done better critically (don't know about financially).



And nothing on Good News beats "THEY AIN'T MADE OF NOTHIN' BUT WATER N' SHIT" so.

God I typed a lot.

Album Rating: 5.0

Well financially it was their big market hit I think, thanks in no small part to "Float On."



And I guess I don't listen to near enough indie then, because those tracks are out-there as far as I'm concerned. Same goes for tracks a la "Dance Hall." The band mixing alternative and indie is exactly on the money: Good News is a collection of various sounds, and it ends up sounding a bit messy. But that's sort of the point--putting this glossy, pseudo-happy cover over life's inherent shittiness.



Production tricks or not, the elegance of something like "World at Large" is something to behold. It comes by softly, like a dream, but the lyrics pack a punch. Those little background elements contribute rather than harm in the end.

Album Rating: 4.0



No, just listen to this and don't go any further.



Ever.



Never



Lol. Disagree though! If only at least for Spitting Venom (Top 3 MM song).

Album Rating: 4.0

Hell yeah, hawksy. First two are the band's best. (2)

Album Rating: 5.0

Wait until I make that Strangers to Ourselves 5.0 review. I think I'll be chased off the site.



Honestly, my Modest Mouse ratings are outdated. Their whole discog is probably a 5.0 across the board, I'm just lazy.

Album Rating: 4.5

I'll give it this, 15 years later and Good News can still get me to write a 14 page analysis about it. God almighty, here I go again.



"putting this glossy, pseudo-happy cover over life's inherent shittiness"

Starting to think I just don't like this trope of "happy music, sad lyrics". On Good News especially, it comes off like they aren't sure people will take to the new sound, so they try and keep their old lyrical style. Or that some exec told them to "brighten it up" on the music front to make it more marketable. I know either's not exactly true, but I have a bias I guess sue me.

I feel like we should've did this in the Good News thread.

Album Rating: 5.0

I'd say creating contradictions has been something Modest Mouse have done more than once in their career. Hell, this album is chock-full of those "happy" moments that are disguising something much more sinister. "Wild Pack of Family Dogs" is definitely one such moment, perhaps the most apparent of the bunch, but it's not the only example.



Your stance comes across more cynical, since as far as I know control over the album's production was firmly in their control. There was a desire to incorporate alternative/pop aspects, but not at the cost of their core identity. So they opted to marry the two, and the result is a series of conflicts.



The whole idea of Good News is a farce, really, since the album very rarely delves into anything positive. If anything, it's as depressing and detached as any other 'Mouse record. The closing track, despite its uplifting tone, is basically talking about how a loose, drug-addled lifestyle is slowing killing the song's narrator. Good News ends its runtime in a dream-like state, but it's anything but.

Album Rating: 4.0

We Were Dead > Good News



WWD has Spitting Venom and GN doesn’t. It’s not too far behind though.

Album Rating: 5.0

Methinks "Spitting Venom" is getting a tad overrated there son.