On April 6th, 2004, Modest Mouse released Good News For People Who Love Bad News. It was a commercial success, selling more than 1.5 million copies in the first two years. That success was largely due to the popularity of the single, Float On, which made a lot of people aware of the band for the first time.
As an obsessed fan, I consider the first three albums the best albums of all time (This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, The Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon & Antarctica). So when I say that Good News isn't quite as enjoyable as what came before, it's still more important to me than my favorites by other bands. It's a wonderful collection of songs.
Jeremiah Green did not appear on the album due to health reasons and I missed his presence. However, that's not to say that Benjamin Weikel (The Helio Sequence) did anything wrong; I just missed the genius of Green's work.
It's easy to make an argument for this being the best Modest Mouse album, especially if you prefer production and smoothness over the raw and edgy sound of the first two albums. The songs generally flow together well and sound lush compared to the more experimental earlier efforts, although The Moon & Antarctica started that transition.
So why is Good News such a great listen?
There are 17 songs (17 vinyl, 16 CD), but the overall album length is just under 52 minutes. That's quite a bit shorter than what came before, but still 52 minutes of some of the best music you will ever hear. Let's take a closer look:
Horn Intro is just that. It's a fanfare announcing the album and lasts about 10 seconds. It leads into The World At Large, which sets the tone for Side A of the record. It oozes atmosphere and transports you to another place. Isaac Brock's vocals are contemplative and controlled and he's setting us up for the start of this odyssey. It really feels like a beginning. Float On was written with the intention of being something positive and upbeat. It's as if Brock was saying he knew everything was shit, but sometimes things go your way. Eric Judy's bass helps make the song catchy and danceable, but Brock starts to ramp up the vocals and sounds more certain of what he is saying. He's starting to answer the questions he posed in the previous song. Ocean Breathes Salty completes the side and again seems to join seamlessly with the previous two songs. This is sadder and asks some of the big questions about life and death. There is a dreamy quality to the main riff, and some more good bass lines from Judy.
Side B again opens with a transitional track, Dig Your Grave, lasting just 13 seconds. I'm not sure why it is there. If the opening side was calming, then this side is much more chaotic. Bury Me With It contains the album's title in the lyrics and is one of my favorites on the album. It's essentially about not caring too much about living if the important little things in life are taken away. The lyrics are great and say a lot in a short time; 'I just don't need none of that Mad Max bullshit' conjures up a world of images for me as someone who has seen the movies. Brock gleefully delivers these lyrics and my mood changes as a result.
Dance Hall is a polarizing song. Brock is frantically ranting at us in this song as if his life depended on it. There is calm Isaac and demonically possessed Isaac and you either embrace that or it's a deal breaker. I fully embrace it and think it's hilarious when bad Isaac surfaces. I'm usually grinning when he's ranting like a madman. So this song is a wild ride for me. It gets bonus points for including the 'committin' crimes runnin' down the alley' lyric from Ugly Casanova's Ice On The Sheets, but blink and you'll miss it. Weikel is at his best on this and the previous song.
Bukowski is a favorite for many fans. It reminds me of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme because of the cadence. Brock considers whether he would want to be like Charles Bukowski, even though it would alienate a lot of people. He also talks about God and questions who would want to be such a control freak. The structure of this song is different to everything up to this point with the banjo replacing the guitar, as Modest Mouse tends to do for two or three songs in every live show. The side ends with more banjo and a muddled and dirty song, This Devil's Workday. There's a definite Tom Waits vibe, but this song grows on you if you give it a few listens and stay open to the possibility. The horns sound like an elephant on this one.
Incidentally, Newbury Records released a cool vinyl exclusive six years ago. I managed to pick one up and it looks like this:
Side C instantly changes pace with The View, which has a rhythm section that Talking Heads would be proud of. Again, Brock ponders life itself and makes a few more observations. Satin In A Coffin sees the banjo return, and is a vitriolic rant. I like bad Isaac because it feels authentic. This song has grown on me so much over the years to the point where it's a highlight. I like the plodding structure and the menace of the delivery. Interlude (Milo) is a minute of Judy playing organ with his baby son's voice in the background, It's a sweet song and a change of pace. The closer on Side C is the beautiful Blame It On The Tetons, in which Brock delivers an incredibly understated vocal that is effective because it is so different. The song itself also has a startling change of pace in the middle. It prepares us for the final part of the journey.
Side D opens with what I think of as the trademark Modest Mouse sound on Black Cadillacs. I love the lyric 'we named our children after towns that we'd never been to' and the song comes across as weird because of the chord progression. It's over all too soon, but One Chance makes up for that. It sounds like Brock feels trapped in a relationship and anxious for it to stay on track. The final song on the CD version has been used fairly often to close shows and it feels like a proper ending. The Good Times Are Killing Me feels like the end of the journey as Brock observes that all the drug and alcohol abuse isn't doing him any favors. It's sloppy, but draws you in like a voyeur watching someone hopefully avoid a train wreck. Thankfully, it looks like that was successfully avoided. The final song on the record is I've Got It All, (Most). This actually works well with the previous song and suggests that some of the questions have been answered. It also appears on the No One's First And You're Next EP.
So there you have it. This still feels like a Modest Mouse album. It's undeniably more polished than the releases from the previous decade, but it's still a great album. It's hard to believe that 16 years have passed since this surfaced. Consider giving it a birthday spin.
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