Anticipating the new Modest Mouse Release

It's still early in the 2007, but already I'm bored with this year's new releases. With the exception of the new Arcade Fire album, there has been a shortage of important music. Hopefully, things will get more exciting when the new Modest Mouse record, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank hits the retail outlets on March 20.

The last Modest Mouse record, was a good release when compared against the competition, but as a MM record, it wasn't really wasn't up to the standard set by earlier releases The Moon and Antarctica or The Lonesome Crowded West. Once you become enamoured with MM, you begin to expect certain things of the music: warped, highly textured guitar patterns, oddly off-kilter vocals that sometimes tell strange stories ("Cowboy Dan"), and a show-stopping crescendo that knocks your socks off while spinning provocative lyrical concepts ("The Stars are Projectors").

Fortunately, lead vocalist and guitarist Isaac Brock realized that the band needed help if they were to grow. With the radio hit "Float On" from the last album behind them, it was time for the band to embrace their roots and go back to the edgy style that won them their fan base in the first place.

Enter guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Marr. At first, it seemed very odd that this elder statesman from The Smiths would be a bad fit for the band. If you can find a leaked copy of the new song "Spitting Venom," your doubts will be dashed.

The song begins with a simple acoustic guitar pattern and the repeated lyric "Let it drop... let it all drop." Suddenly, the guitars enter the scene like a semi-truck running on fuel made from chemically refined Fender Jazzmasters. These guitars are completely removed from anything that Marr ever attempted in the Smiths or his other recordings - they are brittle, molten shards of sonic glass. But this is an epic MM tune, and a stunning trumpet melody enters the theme as the guitars spin a magnificent melodic pattern while the vocals layer smartly within the mix.

Yes, Modest Mouse are back with a vengeance. We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank won't be a record that your mom will like. It's entirely too edgy and dissonant.

Which is exactly what we need right now.