Track Listing
1. March Into the Sea
2. Dashboard
3. Fire It Up
4. Florida
5. Parting of the Sensory
6. Missed the Boat
7. We've Got Everything
8. Fly Trapped in a Jar
9. Education
10. Little Motel
11. Steam Engenius
12. Spitting Venom
13. People as Places as People
14. Invisible
| Details | | Playing Time: | 62 min. | | Producer: | Dennis Herring | | Distributor: | Sony Music Distribution ( | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Modest Mouse: Eric Judy, Isaac Brock, Jeremiah Green, Johnny Marr , Joe Plummer, Tom Peloso.
Recording information: Sweet Tea, Oxford, MS.
Though the album title sounds like it was borrowed from the avant-weirdos Liars, WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK finds quintessential indie-rockers Modest Mouse charting a course down the stylistic middle. They retain enough of their trademark quirkiness to keep longtime fans from feeling alienated, but they simultaneously put popwise songcraft to the fore. The dance-rock of "Dashboard" sounds like it could be a Killers outtake, and several tracks find the band engaging in the kind of post-Pavement mid-fi style that first endeared them to the slacker masses.
Isaac Brock sounds properly unhinged on "Florida," "Invisible," and "Steam Engenius," as the band pushes into overdrive, but there's also a brace of low-key, acoustic-based tunes that provide a perfect contrast. The Mouse is bolstered by some high-powered guests as well: Smiths guitar legend Johnny Marr adds a bit of six-string support, and Shins singer James Mercer contributes some backing vocals. Nevertheless, the fraying-but-fierce group dynamic that's always been at the heart of the MM sound prevails throughout.
Editorial Reviews
3.5 stars out of 5 -- [I]t's louder and somewhat less twisty than the group's indie output...
Rolling Stone
4 stars out of 5 -- Isaac Brock's vocal histrionics and Marr's itchy guitar scrawl provide a backdrop for cryptic, neurotic lyrical intrigue, but they're also capable of a cute romantic ballad...
Mojo
Ranked #11 in Q's The 50 Best Albums Of 2007 -- [L]oosely based around a nautical theme, it conjures up visions of a grunge Talking Heads...
Q
4 stars out of 5 -- Brock and his bandmates have filled the album with the kind of guitar-heavy dirges and poignant ballads that long ago turned them into blue-collar indie-rock gods.
Alternative Press
4 stars out of 5 -- Marr dazzles throughout....Modest Mouse show no signs of sinking into the quagmire of mainstream orthodoxy...A fantastic voyage.
Q
Brock has never sounded more charismatic, or chameleonlike, as he alternately croons, spits, and bronchially howls through lyrics... -- Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly
4 stars out of 5 -- Brock's pop instincts have never been more refined....It's a road-trip sing-along album not for vacationers, but for escapees.
Spin
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