Brock’s newfound bruised optimism sent the album that the single appeared on, 2004’s ‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’, into the stratosphere, turning the local yokels from America’s Pacific Northwest into Platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated titans of the ‘00s indie scene. It’s a mindset that the six-piece also explore on their seventh record, ‘The Golden Casket’, albeit with the good news dialled up and the bad news dialled down.
The album is a masterful psychedelic patchwork, bouncing between eerie soundscapes (opener ‘Fuck Your Acid Trip’), knotty post-punk (‘Walking And Running’) and maximalist pop melody (the ludicrously good fun ‘The Sun Hasn’t left’). Sometimes they combine all three elements on the same song, as on turbo-charged indie anthem ‘We Are Between’, the album’s massive lead single.
In a recent interview with NME, the 45-year-old frontman explained that ‘The Golden Casket’ was inspired by both domestic bliss – he’s had two children since the last Modest Mouse album, 2015’s less accessible ‘Strangers To Ourselves’ – and his general baked-in pessimism: “I don’t think shit’s gonna get easier for everyone… [But] I just had to kinda look at that and find a way to make it sound OK.”
Modest Mouse - The Golden Casket
1. Fuck Your Acid Trip
2. We Are Between
3. We're Lucky
4. Walking And Running
5. Wooden Soldiers
6. Transmitting Receiving
7. The Sun Hasn't Left
8. Lace Your Shoes
9. Never Fuck A Spider On The Fly
10. Leave A Light On
11. Japanese Trees
12. Back To The Middle