So I often discuss my inability to write criticism, but one record I think I can review is the new Modest Mouse. It feels like a sellout. The lyrics are less opaque, it's more produced. The previous full-lengths had great openers, this one has a brief horn intro, later revealed to be the opening for another song, totally bypassing the strong opener and having it's first real song be kind of weak, as a second song might be. It's a tone-setter. The tone is one of happy melancholy, or resignation. It's such a fucking commercial record. Besides the lyrics and the production, the actual song structure is so goddamn poppy. It's the first Modest Mouse record to be dominated by songs with verse-chorus structures. Some songs throw in a bridge. But the other albums would either be jammy and repetitive and really blur what was a verse, what was a chorus, or had long instrumental passages, or... Third Planet, the fucking great opener to Moon And Antarctica had a structure that seemed vaguely stream-of-consciousness. It had anthemic moments but they weren't repeated. This is the most worrisome aspect. The tone... that could just be the record they wanted to make. They have a new producer. They have a different drummer. I don't really think it was a deliberate bid for popularity. I don't think they're going to get much more popular... they got pretty big just by force of word-of-mouth, to the point where MTV won't make that large of a difference. They were already playing in the same venues as, say, the Foo Fighters would. It's just a weak record. It's a traditional record, in its structure as an album as well, setting aside the intro thing. While Moon And Antarctica had the "weird" middle section to really further the tone of isolation, this one is just a collection of songs with a similar tone overall. Because of that, there's strong tracks and weak tracks, but on Moon And Antarctica, the weak tracks made it a better record. There's also the fact that I've recently learned that there are certain people who are really into Modest Mouse in that cultish kind of adoration sort of way. This kind of alienated me from them, in that I can't really champion them. Then there's the Olsen Twins thing, discussed in my last post. To me they just don't seem like they're just another really good band in the underground anymore. This is furthered by the fact that, now, because of the word-of-mouth and MTV etc. there are now people who've listened to Modest Mouse but have never listened to Built To Spill, who were once the same size in terms of following, and their followings had a lot of overlap, with both bands on the same record label.

So yeah, my first stab at criticism, aside from the points about the lack of a strong opener and the traditional song structure, is basically whiny scenester bullshit. Which is what criticism is at it's worst. Also kind of inevitable when talking about the idea of a "sell-out," which in turn, is also criticism at its worst. But I don't know how anyone could avoid talking about it in those kind of terms.

I will say this for Good News For People Who Love Bad News: When I listened to it yesterday, I liked it more than I had the previous times I listened to it. I don't think it's the beginning of the end, (although: it could be) I think if they brought Jeremiah Green back into the fold and had brought back an old producer, there's the possibility of a good record. Even more so in the event of bandwide depression and/or creative tension. You know, the things that make good records.

Also on criticism, right after I said the thing about Pitchfork not reviewing the new Mirah record, they did it. Fascinating to me is how I tend to agree with all of their Mirah reviews except for the parts where they talk about it in relation to the other records. The Advisory Committee review talks shit on You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This, the Songs From The Mountain or whatever it's called review says that Advisory Committee is bad except for Cold Cold Water, and the C'Mon Miracle review, while getting the highlights and the weak spots right, says it's the best record Mirah's done yet, while I would say it's probably my least favorite (not counting EPs or side-projects). All three LPs have received marks in the 8 range, which seems about right.

Also, it turns out that Loretta Lynn record? Pretty good. I like it better than the last White Stripes record, but then again, I kind of hated that one. Loretta's voice is twangy, which is to be expected, but still an issue for me, and probably everybody reading this. And yet, musically, it remains a pretty decent record. I expected worse. No songs as great as Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around, but on the whole, it's both more consistent in terms of quality and more diverse in terms of backings than any single American Recordings record. (Although I could be wrong about that, as I've never listened to any of those straight-through, as I tended to get bored.) Oh, and although it's been a while, and when I heard it, I didn't listen that closely, I have heard one of the late-period Dolly Parton records... I'm thinking it was The Grass Is Blue, one of the ones that got some good press, but my point is I thought it sucked. I think that pretty much covers all of the old-country people who've had "creative resurgences and found new audiences."

Remember when Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around played over the opening credits to the Dawn of the Dead remake? What the fuck was that about? I like the song, I like the movie, but the song, you know, it's about the second coming, and the biblical apocalypse. Not zombies. That the movie ends with fucking Disturbed really casts that song in bad light, of the director's posturing or something. I don't know. I can't articulate anything. I've thought about using that song for a movie soundtrack though, although for a completely different setting. It's an austere song, you know. I see it playing in a car that's driving across the desert while the apocalypse looms in the near future.