‘The Golden Casket’ by Modest Mouse Review: Float On Past the Noise

[peekaboo]

The rock band’s seventh LP teems with experimental sound, but that’s not where its value lies.

Isaac Brock and Modest Mouse performing in 2019

Photo: Getty Images

Modest Mouse fans are used to waiting. The band, led by vocalist and guitarist Isaac Brock, helped define the sound of Pacific Northwest indie rock—the group formed in Issaquah, Wash., and is now based in Portland, Ore.—in the latter part of the 1990s. In its first half-decade of existence, Modest Mouse cut three full-length records, including two doubles, along with scattered EPs and a clutch of singles. It successfully carried its idiosyncratic early style—Mr. Brock’s yelping vocals sometimes bring to mind the Pixies, while his ear for unusual song structures and inventive, emotionally stirring guitar lines are all his own—to a major label with 2000’s “The Moon & Antarctica.” 

And then the slowdown started. Modest Mouse took four years to craft its platinum-selling commercial breakthrough, 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News,” and in the 16 years that followed managed only two more albums. “The Golden Casket” (Epic), its seventh LP, is out Friday. Like its two immediate predecessors, it’s sprinkled with forceful moments but is also frustratingly inconsistent.

If you wonder what Modest Mouse did with all that studio time, one listen to “The Golden Casket” provides a straightforward answer: cram sound into every available inch of tape or hard-drive space. Most of the individual tracks are produced by Dave Sardy (Oasis, Fall Out Boy) or Jacknife Lee (U2, the Killers), and they are almost all cluttered, overflowing with extraneous instruments and odd effects. In a recent interview on the pop-culture site Uproxx, Mr. Brock said, “I started off with just me and Dave the producer so that we could rack up a bunch of weird sounds, and then see what we needed from the rest of the band.”

Photo: Epic Records

For the fourth album in a row, Modest Mouse starts with a quirky opener before launching into an anthemic single clearly crafted for radio—“We Are Between” fits into the latter spot, with its instantly memorable clanging guitar riff and a monster chorus featuring Mr. Brock’s multi-tracked voice. It’s both unsurprising and bluntly effective, establishing the record’s dense sound and a lyrical thread of dislocation and confusion (a common subject for Mr. Brock). The following “We’re Lucky” extends the thematic idea and adds a swooning horn line to the saturated mix. On these selections and a few others in the early section, Mr. Brock’s ear for hooks just barely rescues the tracks from the seriously overstuffed production. 

The weaker cuts sound like busy arrangements in search of a song. “Wooden Soldiers” stretches for an interminable six minutes as Mr. Sardy plays “iPad synth, 808 drum beat, Hammond organ, piano, acoustic guitar, synths, synth bass and vocals” while Mr. Brock’s credit adds a list of eight other instruments, at least one of which, “soft drink percussion,” might be made up. And this sonic jumble accompanies a plodding number about certainty that we can summarize as “man plans, and God laughs.” The following “Transmitting Receiving” has Messrs. Brock and Sardy playing 14 instruments between them—six additional ones come from other band members—on a song that is itself about overload and paranoia. “Tornados, crockpots, kumquats, baseballs, plants both big and small,” Mr. Brock spits out, aiming for the jittery energy of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” but his tangled mess of imagery fails to leave a lasting impression.

The biggest highlights on the album—and they are quite good—come late in the record, almost as a reward for sticking around. “Lace Your Shoes” is a sweetly affecting and innocent meditation on unconditional love for a child and a wish for a brighter future (“And I hope there’s still something left for you / I can’t wait to see which paths you choose”), and “Never F— a Spider on the Fly” sports an elemental descending chord progression that Mr. Brock whips into a stirring singalong. 

But the last song, “Back to the Middle,” stands out the most: Bassist Russell Higbee and violist Lisa Molinaro join Mr. Brock Mr. Brock and drummer Jeremiah Green, and each plays a single instrument. The title suggests Mr. Brock, possibly with tongue-in-cheek, is aware that the track could be considered a conscious return to the basics, which he’s resisted. Mr. Brock, always an inventive and distinctive guitarist with a knack for making odd spiky notes fall together into something catchy, sings a beautiful and memorable tune that builds into a heart-rending chorus. 

So “The Golden Casket” is a collection of contradictions—the try-anything approach that makes Modest Mouse special also prevents the group from crafting consistently strong records. Instead of doubling down on an established essence (think Dinosaur Jr.) or making small modifications at the margins (Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters), Modest Mouse seems to begin each album with a blank slate, which partially explains why it can take so long for the band to complete a new project. “Back to the Middle” hints at what should be its next change-up: Keep it simple. If the songs are strong and the performances are there, guitar, bass and drums will be more than enough.