The Moon & Antarctica [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Modest Mouse

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 9, 2004)
• Original Release Date: March 5, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0001I2CDY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,533 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #9 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Styles > Rock > Noise
  #13 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Lo-Fi
  #15 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Emo

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
With their interstellar (really!) lyrics and angular song structures, Modest Mouse tend to defy their self-deprecating band name. In truth, the trio's got some lofty ambitions, and The Moon and Antarctica indulges their grand dreams with pristine production and a vivid sonic backdrop. It also dives deeply into their geographical obsessions--always with the same subjective twists that made The Lonesome Crowded West and This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About such inspired wonders. Isaac Brock opens Moon with meditations on the universe's shape--all twisted into such a solipsistic tangle that they illuminate immediately how much these songs are about the mind as about the world. Rarely giving off the cage-jarring thickness of guitar rock, Moon's 15 tunes are shaped around vignettes of a disheveled head figuring out the rambling disconnections of postmodern society. Guitars wobble, Brock wails on vocals, and his band mates--Eric Judy and Jeremiah Green--help take each song away from any predictable formula and toward wherever they seem to want to go. This is a band as profoundly touched by suburbia as was writer Harold Brodkey. You can imagine Brock, Green, and Judy lying on wide-open lawns, philosophizing about the shape of the universe and coming up with lyric moments like this (sung to folky, spare acoustic guitar): "A wild pack of family dogs came running through the yard and as my own dog ran away I didn't say much of anything at all / A wild pack of family dogs came running through the yard as my little sister played; the dogs took her away, and I guess she was eaten up, okay." Replays of American Beauty, anyone? --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Takes some time to work its magic, December 16, 2004

By	Erik R. Olson (Dublin, CA, United States) - See all my reviews

I bought this CD a few months ago on a whim, just to find out what the buzz was about. I figured that a CD with almost twenty tracks on it had to have something I would like somewhere in there. And as it turns out, I was right.

There is a lot that makes Modest Mouse unusual, from this newbie's perspective. Isaac Brock's voice takes some getting used to, for one thing. He sounds damaged, vulnerable, innocent, almost childlike sometimes, and although you wouldn't think those qualities would add up to a good singer, his style really works when the music and lyrics are right.

"3rd Planet," the album's opener, is one of the songs I liked immediately. It's self-effacing, introspective, reflective, and maybe just a little sad. As far as I can tell from the lyrics, "3rd Planet" is about a couple who chooses to have an abortion. Not a pretty subject, but we don't just listen to music to feel good. "Gravity Rides Everything" works well too, feeling like the theme song for an extended, weary road trip.

Another moody track is "The Cold Part." Violins, acoustic guitar, and a loping drumbeat serve as the backdrop to a failing relationship. Initially this song seems almost comical in its gloom, but there is a thoughtful sincerity to it, completely devoid of irony, that makes you reconsider. "The Stars Are Projectors" alternates between loud and soft sequences with more or less the same underlying sentiment of solitude and loss.

There are some moments on The Moon and Antarctica that fall a bit flat, or are just too languid for their own good, but for the most part the album has a cohesive, mournful feel to it that really "works" and makes Modest Mouse distinctive. Occasionally this is conveyed with humor (such as with the disco thump of "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"), but for the most part The Moon and Antarctica uses long, meandering songs with brief stabs of guitar-and-drum catharsis to bleed out the pain. The imagery of planets and stars -- already heavily suggestive of isolation and extreme cold -- helps keep the songs together thematically, and provides a tangible environment for the drama to play out.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting when I bought this album, but I can definitely say I am happy with it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you own it already, you're not missing out., May 20, 2004

By	"risingtide16" (Elizabethtown, PA, USA) - See all my reviews

First of all, to the major-label-cynical idiots, this album was originally released on Epic to begin with. The label it is on has nothing to do with the content, and the fact that this is their fourth proper album and an appropriate step in their evolution is the more important consideration to make. Moving on.

This album is absolutely transcendent. I listened to it when I first bought it about two years ago and had my likes and dislikes, but upon maybe my thirtieth or fortieth listen, the significance and meanings hit me.

Each song on this album is a piece of a greater puzzle. Sure, if someone tells you to buy this album and you go and download "The Cold Part" and "What People Are Made Of," you're not going to be thrown back in your seat. This is an album in the truest sense of the world, not a collection of radio-ready songs, and the imagery from the production and the sequencing on the album is truly amazing.

Is the re-release necessary? Very debatable, but I feel it isn't. The album's emotional and appropriate end is definitely at its original point, after "What People Are Made Of," and not after a retread of "Tiny Cities."

If you don't already own this album, do not hesitate to buy it, it is an album that fans of any type of rock music will appreciate and love, not just indie fans. If you already own this album, look at your wallet and see if you can justify $15 for average re-treads of songs you already know and love. Five stars for the original album, minus one for the value/necessity quotient.

41 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sublime, but be warned . . . , September 28, 2005

By	Caraculiambro (La Mancha) - See all my reviews

If you know nothing about Modest Mouse and are curious to hear some of their most characteristic work, "The Moon & Antarctica" is a good place to start. Most of their fans consider it their best (and most representative) album to date.

I should point out that as a rule, Modest Mouse fans are not tepid: those who like Modest Mouse tend to be REALLY REALLY into Modest Mouse.

Which is another reason why you should start with "The Moon & Antarctica." Many of the reasons why others dislike Modest Mouse are also apparent on this CD.

So be warned: if you don't like this album, don't buy any of their other CD's, since if this one is not to your taste, you simply aren't gonna like Modest Mouse.