Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Artist: Modest Mouse
Released: April 6th, 2004
Length: 48 minutes 50 seconds
Welcome back everyone for the second edition of The Weekly Album Review. This week, I sat down and listened to Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse. I think most people around my age (26 for you new readers) will be familiar with their most popular songs “Float On”, which is a feature on this album, and “Dashboard.” I am a huge fan of those songs but before listening to this album I don’t think I’d be able to name you another one of their songs. I had an idea of what I thought the album would sound like and what the themes would be, but man was I wrong. I found myself in moments of sadness, anxiety, and guilt. I found myself sitting with these emotions because the songs made me self-reflect, which I think is an extremely powerful thing for a song to do.
If I haven’t scared you off yet with depressing sentence after depressing sentence, I applaud your bravery. There are definitely bright moments on this album and some songs that are just downright badass. It was one interesting listen so let’s not wait any longer and get into it…
Track Listing:
“Horn Intro”
“The World at Large”
“Float On”
“Ocean Breathes Salty”
“Dig Your Grave”
“Bury Me With It”
“Dance Hall”
“Bukowski”
“This Devil’s Workday”
“The View”
“Satin in a Coffin”
“Interlude (Milo)”
“Blame It on the Tetons”
“Black Cadillacs”
“One Chance”
“The Good Times Are Killing Me”
The intro to this album is 9 seconds long. Two notes from a horns section. It immediately caught me off guard but it did grab my attention and I felt ready to listen. Kinda wish it was longer, though.
Let’s begin for real by focusing on the first two songs, “The World at Large” and “Float On.” I find that I cannot write about either individually because they share a similar theme but are delivered in vastly different ways. “The World at Large” made me sad. The guitar melody made me feel a sense of longing, and the violins at the end amplified that feeling tenfold. The tone in which the lead singer, Isaac Brock, delivers each line sounds beaten down and tired. The lyrics revolve around drifting and floating through life aimlessly, not having a plan, not knowing what you want, and having a general attitude of “whatever” to everything. I felt sad for the person within the story of the song, who seems like a person that has given up entirely even thought there’s time to turn it around. And all while I was growing increasingly sad and thinking Holy shit I was not expecting my night to be like this the song gradually fades and bleeds directly into “Float On” which is a MASSIVE 180. It feels like you have been injected with a shot of serotonin the second that guitar riff comes in. (Side note: If you’re thinking Hey this sounds a lot like Lupe Fiasco’s “The Show Goes On” you are 100% correct and you should know that all the band members of Modest Mouse are credited as writers on that song.) OK, back to the song. We still have a similar theme of floating on through life but now it’s in the lens of “whatever!” and the feeling that good news is just around the corner so don’t sweat it. The person we follow in this song gets fired from their job, hits a cop car, scammed by a Jamaican man, you name it! This song, especially compared to what it comes after, forces me to remind myself that problems will come and go and sometimes life really is ok. Lastly, it’s so fun to sing along to “Alright! Already! We’ll all float on!” for the last minute or so.
Pictured here is the band, Modest Mouse.
Look at those stares. So serious. Except the guy on the far right who forgot to look at the camera.
“Ocean Breathes Salty” is what I’ll start calling a “playlist song”. These are songs that I am adding to a playlist while listening to albums because they stand out to me and I'll want to listen to them again. To be fair, I’m struggling to understand what it’s about, and I keep coming back to the conclusion that it feels like a happier song but the lyrics seem dark. The lead singer has such an interesting delivery of lines and I am drawn to the “Well that is that and this is this, you tell me what you want and I’ll tell you what you get.” It flows word over word almost, like he’s rapping and singing. I’ll leave you with lyrics I’d love to discuss in the comments…
“When the ocean met the sky, You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbyeWhen the Earth folded in on itselfAnd said, 'Good luck, for your sake I hope Heaven and Hellare really therebut I wouldn't hold my breath'You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?"“Dig Your Grave” is 12 seconds long and it sounds like someone is tuning a banjo. It leads into “Bury Me With It” which is one of the songs that I think is badass. I get a White Stripes vibe from this song. It feels sloppy (in a good way) with slurring lyrics and in your face screaming. The first “Please!” punches through and they do it every time which makes me nod my head and put a mean mug on my face. This song feels like a fuck you to death. It seems like an acceptance that it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do but meet it head on. The lyrics follow the journey of life from being kids throwing stuff at dirt, wearing suits to your job, collecting paychecks, and ultimately the end. I get the sense that the band is saying bury me with it all, I don’t care, because I’m not afraid.
I listen to each album a few times before writing. First listen is just me and the music. Then I listen and take notes. Then I listen with the lyrics open. I say this because the first time I listened to “Dance Hall” I had literally no freakin’ clue what he was saying. He is speaking so fast, so muffled, and aggressively I wouldn’t be surprised if they were drunk when they recorded it. This song is not my cup of tea, but if you want to let some anger out and punch a pillow I’d recommend playing this.
“Bukowski” is a song that I found made me think quite a lot about religion and my relationship with it. The lyrics suggest that Isaac Brock has a difficult relationship himself with God. “If God takes life, He’s an Indian giver” really spoke to me because it falls on the darker side of one’s view on God. He gives life, but then he takes it back. Does that seem fair? I didn’t know who Bukowski was (shame on me, I was an English major!) and for those who also don’t know, he was an American poet and author that wrote about the lives of poor Americans. That added another layer in my thinking about God and if he’s “really so damn mighty” then why do we see so much suffering and poverty in the world He created? The band asks the question “Who would want to be such a control freak?” and I too found myself asking that question. The answer…I think that’s a personal one that each of us has to make because we all have our own relationship with religion and God.
“This Devil’s Workday” is another song that wasn’t for me. I like the horn section that opens the song and remains throughout it, but that was the extent of what I liked about this song. Perhaps it follows “Bukowski” because this focuses on the Devil and not God? It may even be from the view of someone inherently evil or the Devil himself. Not too sure.
Take a break from the heavy reading and enjoy this fun photo of the band.
Speaking of fun, I had a lot of fun listening to “The View.” The bass guitar, lead guitar, and the singing all follow a tight, choppy melody that comes across with an angsty energy. There’s parts of this song where once again I have no idea what words are being sung but the parts I did understand I found quite meaningful. “As life gets longer, awful feels softer, and it feels pretty soft to me. And if it takes shit to make bliss, Well I feel pretty blissfully.” We all have our own struggles and our own problems in our lives. One thing I’ve learned to stop doing is comparing my problems with others. Death by comparison. Your problems are no less real than anyone else’s, and the ability to get through them easier leads to a better, more blissful, version of you.
Bring on the banjo! “Satin in a Coffin” is another badass song that sneakily might be my favorite on the album. The banjo’s melody mixed with the beat of the drums makes me feel like I’m rolling up to an alley with my crew to fight a rival gang over the rights to a pub. I’ve never once done that in my life but this song makes me think that I have.
“Interlude (Milo)” incorporates what I think is a pump organ? I didn’t think too much of this one given it’s an interlude so let it play and prepare yourself to get sad again…
“Blame It on the Tetons” brings the energy of the past few songs crashing down. Isaac Brock sings in a whisper, talking about finding a scapegoat to blame all his problems on. We’ve all been in a position where things aren’t going our way and it’s a hell of a lot easier to blame our faults and failures on anyone and anything but the man in the mirror. I took this song as a warning to avoid finding scapegoats and work on yourself, otherwise you’ll end up as depressed as the tone of this song. The piano in the last 40 seconds of the song is beautiful. Just thought I’d mention that.
I’m intrigued to hear what people think of “Black Cadillacs.” From a music view, I liked the slow start and the sudden shift into a heavier-rock type of song. However, I couldn’t place what the song could be about. I initially thought it was a story of growing up and being done with childish antics. What do you think?
“One Chance” really hit home for me. I think the one chance the band is referring to is our one life. We have one chance to get our life right. I’d like to take that a step farther because, sure, we have one life, but we have so many chances in our one life to make it better. Regardless of where we start, we all are presented opportunities and chances that are gambles and it’s up to us to take them. This leads into my next point focused on the lyrics “My friends, my habits, my family - they mean so much to me” and “I’ve seen so many ships sail in, Just to head back out again and go off sinking.” This made me think about my own situation. My family means the world to me, as I’m sure most of you reading also feel about your family. Yet, there comes a time when you are your own person and feel like you need to be off on your own, trying new things and experiencing the world. We are like the ship in the song that comes and goes, sometimes sinking (failing), and sometimes capitalizing on our one chance. I feel guilt being away from my family for extended periods of time and feel selfish for living my own unique life away from them. It’s a struggle I think most young adults will feel if they move away from home. It’s easy to feel like that “box in a cage” when you are home and think you’re missing out on the wider world. It’s a delicate balance one must learn to create their own life all while acknowledging the family and friends that helped and taught you how to do it in the first place.
We have reached the final song. I wish I could say it ends on a positive note but that wouldn’t fit into the theme of this album, would it? “The Good Times Are Killing Me” is exactly what you think it is. A song about partying, drinking, doing drugs. All of these things that contribute to the “good times” even though they’re all bad for you both physically and mentally. It’s a warning to avoid getting “sucked in and stuck in late nights, with more folks I (you) don’t know.” Are the short-lived moments of happiness from vices a path we really want to go down? I believe everything is useful in moderation, but this song serves as a warning that too much of the unhealthy “good times” will kill you. Bleak.
Thank you again for reading and tune in next week for another album review. Share with friends, subscribe to the newsletter to get alerts on new reviews, and comment how you felt while listening to this album!
