Saturday, December 11, 2010

Modest Mouse - "Missed The Boat"

Missed The Boat by Modest Mouse  
Download now or listen on posterous
06 Missed The Boat.mp3 (6269 KB)

I heard this song on the radio yesterday. ON THE RADIO! It bothers indie elitists, but Modest Mouse getting huge was a great great thing and the reason should be obvious to everybody who ever loved them.

Isaac Brock, with the help of the rest of the band, is a brilliant songwriter. It doesn't matter if you're talking about the catchy songs or the wordy songs or even the more spaced out songs that have peppered recent albums. The world deserves to hear them, and since the label hasn't messed with what they do, despite what haters may think, it means that people get to hear the cynical and complicated hopefulness that draws everybody to them.

Signing to a major label was the right thing for Modest Mouse to do. The Moon and Antarctica is one of the best albums of the last decade, and the two albums after it, Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, aren't far behind them. Again, despite what the indie elitist haters who just don't want anybody to like the same bands as them may say.

"Missed The Boat" has a hook to it - a hook that caught me from the first time I heard it - but it isn't the upbeat stuff that got the band all over MTV and whatever radio stations claim to have played them. Sometimes, I think Brock is inside my head, which is at turns both the-world-is-beautiful filled with hope and the-world-is-shit filled with angst. The lyrics to this song are so mixed up that you can't possibly think he's just an artist boiling it down for his art, which the good songwriters never do. Here's the hook from this song:

Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and I'll laugh all the way to hell
Saying, "Yes, this is a fine promotion"
Oh, and I'll laugh all the way to hell

Damn I love this band.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

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