Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
Ever since I first heard this I've been listening the living sh!t out of it. I love it. Not because of crushingly high-quality production and shiny clean vocals. It doesn't have either. That's the charming part (referring to my previous post). Oh, and I'm not waiting until after the weekend. I did have the time, after all.
1. "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine"
2. "Heart Cooks Brain"
3. "Convenient Parking"
4. "Lounge (Closing Time)"
5. "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child"
6. "Doin' the Cockroach"
7. "Cowboy Dan"
8. "Trailer Trash"
9. "Out of Gas"
10. "Long Distance Drunk"
11. "**** Luck"
12. "Truckers Atlas"
13. "Polar Opposites"
14. "Bankrupt on Selling"
15. "Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright"
It kicks off with
“Teeth Like God's Shoeshine”, a dissonant rocker hitting you not with clean notes, but pure, honest energy.
“Heart Cooks Brain” is the follow-up, and it features lyrics such as “my brain's the burger and my heart's the coal”. Like it or love it. I think the album is kind of lyrically repetitive at moments, especially in the song
“Convenient Parking”, but I like it. I think it contributes to building up the energy, at least in this case. The fifth track,
“Jesus Christ was an Only Child” doesn't sound at all like the first four. It's driven by violin and acoustic guitar, and features some haunting noise in the background sounding kind of like Donald Duck getting strangled by a bear. Rad. I think my personal favourite from the album is
“Cowboy Dan”. It has a tense, pounding rhythm section that leads the song until it changes into a mellow mid-part, then it gets back to normal. Another favourite is
“Sh!t Luck”, the song with the most raw energy on the entire album. It has very few sung lines, or maybe I should say shouted?
“Truckers Atlas” is for you guys who like long songs. Note that it's not very complex, and that about five minutes of it is... well, nothing much but filler.
This album has something for everyone. Weird lyrics, violin, a dying Donald Duck, mellow parts, long songs, (non-)religious views, punk and US state references. Recommended for emos, nerds, hipsters, Norwegians, the rest of the world and Disney-haters.
