Modest Mouse Preview First New Album in Six Years with “We Are Between”

Isaac Brock and company have a new album on the way, their seventh, and first since 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves. The Golden Casket drops June 25 on Epic Records, but slick lead single “We Are Between” is out now.

“We Are Between” is the band’s first new material since their 2019 Record Store Day 7”, “Poison the Well” b/w “I’m Still Here,” and 2019 one-off “Ice Cream Party.” Modest Mouse’s new track is a hooky rocker powered by a clean-toned riff and rhythm-guitar chug. Brock’s signature vocals sound surprisingly under control as he lays out the dichotomy of humanity, singing, “We are somewhere between the dust and the stars.” An atmospheric synth outro reinforces the song’s celestial existentialism, concluding it on a pensive note.

Modest Mouse produced The Golden Casket with Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee, recording in Los Angeles and the band’s Portland studio. Lyrically, the album explores “themes ranging from the degradation of our psychic landscapes and invisible technology, to fatherhood,” per a press release.

Modest Mouse are set to play the Life is Beautiful Festival in downtown Las Vegas on Sept. 17-19, and the aforementioned presser promises more tour dates to come.