I loved this album the first time I listened to it. I don’t really know what this means in the long run, but recently I have been addicted to music. If I could quit my job and listen to music all day, laying on the floor with my speakers blaring and the windows rattling, well. Then I might be Chuck Klosterman. I have not heard an album in the last month and a half that I have not kept on repeat for at least a week.
The sound on “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” is very different from what I expect from Modest Mouse. Each song is immediately listenable. I feel the need to qualify this assesment. In conversation with an “indie rock” friend we once discussed Bright Eyes, and I mentioned that I didn’t really like Bright Eyes except for two songs. He said “Let me guess, “Lover I don’t have to love” and “Bowl of Oranges”. He proceeded to tell me that in making a mix for his sister (whose taste in music he despises, generally), he put those two songs on it knowing that they were the only two she would be able to listen to. Because they were the most radio ready. We then got into a conversation about other music, and his assesment that generally I like to listen to the “singles”, whether I know that’s what they are the first time I hear them.
Exclusivity aside, this conversation has often made me question my judgment in music. I like to believe that my style is unique and that I don’t just like what everyone else likes. I make an effort to find music that other people aren’t listening to, and to try it out. Not because no one else knows it, but because I like the idea of being involved enough in music to know what’s coming, and why people like it.