admin
22 December 2023
Prior to listening to Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse, the only exposure I\'d had to them was their single, \"Tiny City Made Of Ashes\", that was played incessantly on Columbus, Ohio\'s own \"alternative radio station\", CD 101. I liked the strange, quiet/loud, unsettling sound of it, but never picked up the album.
Imagine my surprise when I popped Good News... into my CD player, and heard the blaring ten-second horn intro, and the 15 or so other songs that sound nothing like \"Tiny City\". The offbeat musical sensibility can still be heard, but Modest Mouse is a schizo band. No two songs sound alike, and I had to check the liner notes to see if they had more than one lead vocalist. The vocals go from delicate, almost Flaming Lips-like to some pseudo-Tom Waits gruff to even a little Lou Reed-esque intoning on the last track, \"The Good Times Are Killing Me\". If this is all one guy, he\'s got range.
It took me a few listens to get into the album, but now I dig it. It\'s unique and quirky without being obnoxiously so.
Imagine my surprise when I popped Good News... into my CD player, and heard the blaring ten-second horn intro, and the 15 or so other songs that sound nothing like \"Tiny City\". The offbeat musical sensibility can still be heard, but Modest Mouse is a schizo band. No two songs sound alike, and I had to check the liner notes to see if they had more than one lead vocalist. The vocals go from delicate, almost Flaming Lips-like to some pseudo-Tom Waits gruff to even a little Lou Reed-esque intoning on the last track, \"The Good Times Are Killing Me\". If this is all one guy, he\'s got range.
It took me a few listens to get into the album, but now I dig it. It\'s unique and quirky without being obnoxiously so.
artid
2407
Old Image
6_10_modestmouse.jpg
issue
vol 6 - issue 10 (jun 2004)
section
entertainmental