Modest Mouse have been working on their new album for longer than many bands have existed. The breadcrumb trail of news reports depicting their progress over the years—they were recording with Krist Novoselic and Big Boi; they were switching producers—gave the worrying impression of a band that maybe didn’t know what the hell they were doing. In 2013, they canceled a tour to hit the studio, and somewhere in there founding bassist Eric Judy quit the band. The process left in its wake some dropped singles and a few different release dates, along with a lingering sense that maybe this venerable indie institution’s creative motor was stuck in neutral.
Strangers to Ourselves finally sees the light of day this week, and to hear Brock tell it, we’re getting another album "as soon as legally possible." They are back, in other words, and vigorously making up for lost time. For better and for worse, the album betrays no signs of its troubled birth. They might have spent eight years in the wilderness, but what they have delivered is…a Modest Mouse album, one that sounds like it could have been released five years ago. There are no new directions or tweaks to their approach. "Lampshades on Fire", the first single, is a good example. It offers a sort of greatest-hits version of all the sounds Modest Mouse have become known for—"Here’s the hard-swinging backbeat! Here are a few of those eerie-sounding harmonic guitar bends, and here are some tight, clipped 'bah bah bahs!'" Still, there’s satisfaction to be had, hearing this band of pros finding and hitting their marks so emphatically. They've been a touring juggernaut for years now, and you can imagine many of these songs exploding live.
Here and there some new flourishes pop up. The glimmering mallet percussion on "Ansel" is a nice touch, something we’ve never heard on a Modest Mouse record before. Opener "Strangers" is a patient and pretty ballad, featuring drowsy brush work by drummer Jeremiah Green, a prominent cello line, and Brock’s gentle, lilting midrange. The delicately fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure in the beginning of "Coyotes" is also lovely, a bit of late-period Beatles. "The Best Room" may or may not be inspired by a UFO sighting, as Isaac Brock coyly hinted in a recent interview. But the song is an unruffled and sweet pop-rock number that hits a feeling Modest Mouse never bothered with in their earliest days: It is sunny, optimistic, relaxed. Not even "Float On", their massive hit and a teeth-gritted ode to positivity, had this easy sense of goodwill to it.