Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Takes some time to work its magic, December 16, 2004
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.
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14 of 15 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
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.
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28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Frosty prettiness, July 24, 2004
Look over the glaciers at the cold night sky, sparkling with stars and with a huge full moon overhead. Then imagine the aurora borealis rising up and distorting the night with its raw beauty. That's Modest Mouse's "Moon and Antarctica," now remastered and rereleased with four extra tracks.
"3rd Planet" kicks off the enticingly surreal album with lines like "The universe is shaped exactly like the earth if you go/straight long enough you'll end up where you were." This meditation on the universe stretches over the album, with the warm, mildly achy "Gravity Rides Everything." Things grow darker with the warped, snarling "Different City" and saddening "Perfect Disguise," finally settling on even ground with the folkish "Lives," and the sweeping, magnificent soundscapes of a three-song cycle starting with "Cold Part." Unfortunately, the album is then saddled with "Life Like Weeds" (pretty, but it feels tacked on) and the jarring, raw "What People Are Made Of," which barely seems like the same band.
In the extended version, there are also four tracks from the BBC Radio Sessions: A radio edit of "3rd Planet" (with naughty words bleeped out), a more intimate version of "Perfect Disguise," a catchy instrumental "Custom Concern," and finishes up with a rather blurry version of "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes."
"Moon and Antarctica" is the sort of music that is like looking through a telescope with an iridescent lens. You not only look at things, but they seem to change in an appealing way. The extra tracks are something of a disappointment, however -- they don't have the dark sparkle of the original album, and there aren't very many extras.
The lyrics have the quality of space poetry, very offbeat and not quite connected with the everyday world. They're a little frightening with their exploration of anger, loneliness and misery, but also quite beautiful in their brushes by the very edges of the universe (try listening to this while looking at fractal pictures), and the evocative wording ("And right after I die the dogs start floating up towards the glowing sky").
Fortunately, Modest Mouse doesn't include just the usual guitar-bass-drums riffs. That would be doing an injustice to the music they put out. Forming parts of the smooth music are violins, electronic stretches and a sort of unique sound that brings to mind "Pink Floyd doing folk." Isaac Brock's thin voice always has a sort of distant quality. It's not really a GOOD voice, but like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, it's an integral part of the music itself.
Edgy, beautiful, melancholy, dark and spacey, "The Moon and Antarctica" is deserving of such royal treatment. The extra tracks are a disappointment, but the original album remains a modern indie classic.
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