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modest mouse: everywhere and his nasty parlour tricks
BY BEN GOULD
Modest Mouse has so far excelled at that rarest of all things: the unpretentious concept album. But their new release, Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, is a hastily assembled mix of old and new songs whose only common denominator is their ability to disappoint. This is especially surprising for a band whose last original album, The Moon and Antarctica, was so close to perfect. In fact, probably the best cut off of Everywhere is "I Came as a Rat," which appears in a different version on The Moon and Antarctica.The rest of the songs are either new or were previously available only on vinyl. Out of the new songs, the only salvageable one is "Here it Comes," which is saved by Isaac Brock's charmingly lisped delivery and the catchy refrain, with its variations on "Walking around with shit on our shoes/Here it comes." It is only here that they let in the tragicomic fatalism that makes their past albums unique; the rest of the new songs are incoherent or just plain bad. "3 Inch Horses, Two Faced Monsters," for instance, goes on ad nauseam and doesn't show off the band's strengths: its amazing rhythm section, its ability to write complex songs that seem simple, and its psychological acuity.
Occasionally there is the odd flash of brilliance. "Night on the Sun," which was released as a single last year, returns to the mode of 1997's great album, The Lonesome Crowded West. The interesting tempo changes, the disturbing lyrics superimposed on a cheerful melody, and the emotional range of Brock's voice, which can go from anguished scream to resigned whisper in a moment—these all make "Night on the Sun" as good as many of the tracks on The Lonesome Crowded West.
But that, unfortunately, just makes the bad songs on Everywhere seem worse. There are only three good songs on this EP, and the rest are entirely forgettable, especially since no emotional theme ties this release together. I find it hard to believe this is anything but the product of Epic's money-grubbing. There is no need for this EP to exist, and it should not have been released. Modest Mouse is one of the truly great American rock bands, and with Everywhere, they have been made to look bad. (Epic)
All materials © 2001 The Yale Herald, Inc., and its staff.
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