Modest Mouse – Good
News For People Who Love Bad News
(CD)
Sound: B Music:
C
I’d
heard of Modest Mouse in the past, but was never compelled to listen to them
for whatever reasons I had. As such, I can’t compare this release to
anything lurking in their back catalogue. However, I somehow get the
impression that I’d like their previous albums better. In any case, this
latest release is bound to sell well - mainly due to MTV pushing it down
viewer’s throats and into the spotlight. This isn’t a new practice for
the network, but ads I’ve seen for Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand have
bothered me more than any in the past. My annoyance most likely stems
from how they’re painting them as the best current music available, and to show
that the station can still pull off “variety”. A lame effort to pull back
some viewers that FUSE has rightfully taken to their side, in my opinion.
Both
Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse come from the same breed of music, and aren‘t
as inspired as some people might claim. They’re just the latest cash-ins
being presented to the artsy crowd who prefers their rock mellowed down to the
same bland taste with some eccentric flourishes thrown in here and there.
Even the music videos echo Radiohead and Coldplay. Since the end of
the mid-90s, we’ve been subjected to a lot of musical trends. There’s
been nu-metal, pop punk, emo, and now the retro-rock that currently plagues
us. I really don’t see why we’ve been subjected to all of this bad taste,
yet more of the same is popped out all the time. I could continue my rant
against the media peddlers of today, but I’d be wasting my time. Back to the album at hand...
Good News For People Who Love Bad News may
have been more warmly received by me in the past, but the parts I liked have
been done already. Some reminds me of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,
by The Flaming Lips (this is a good thing). On the bad side, I found the
short instrumentals here to be very annoying. Similar annoyance was taken
with the aforementioned album at certain points, but there wasn’t enough to
sway me from what I liked about it. In the end, after several listens to
the album, I’m still torn about how to rate it. It has a lot going
against it in my book - but there are enough bright spots to make me think twice
about trashing it completely.
The
sound quality here is clean and adequate, just as good as most other major
releases, so there’s not a lot else to say in this area. If you heard the
Float On single and want more, go for the album. If you buy a lot of
albums for the singles and end up trading them in shortly down the line, just
cherish it every time it goes through it’s rotation on the air and don’t fret
over loosing any weight in your pockets.
- David Milchick
