Paste Exclusive: New Modest Mouse Record Preview

The next Modest Mouse record won’t be out for months (their label’s best guess has it emerging in early March) but at Epic Records’ New York office, Paste staffers Reid Davis and Nate Douglas recently got a sneak preview of ten songs from the new disc, tentatively entitled We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

Those worried about the potentially transformative influence of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr can rest easy, as Marr’s work (featured on the entire record) enhances the core sounds favored by Mouse frontman Isaac Brock. To our ears, Brock’s shouted rants, driving basslines and percussive arrangements have met a perfect foil in Marr’s limber, arpeggiated guitar. The result is a record that, by all rights, should be an even bigger hit than the band’s improbable commercial breakthrough, Good News For People Who Love Bad News.

Though the record hasn’t yet been sequenced or mastered, the single “Dashboard,” is loaded with undeniable hooks, as is “We’ve Got Everything,” which features backing vocal contributions from Shins songwriter James Mercer (as do two other tracks). And the bigger budgets haven’t ended Brock’s left turns; the appropriately titled “Spitting Venom” progresses from an acoustic ballad into rock pounding and then back again before transitioning into a new section. A Modest Mouse suite, anyone?

Epic says two or three new songs will be added, but here’s the current track list:

1.Dashboard
2.Fire It Up
3.We’ve Got Everything*
4.Education
5.Invisible
6.Missed The Boat*
7.Steaming Genius
8.Spitting Venom
9.Florida*
10.Parting of the Sensories

* Featuring James Mercer

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