Building Nothing Out Of Something
Loneliness, boredom, and random observations have been at the heart of Modest Mouse's skewered musical universe through all their releases. The Issaquah, Washington-born trio has also been able to spin very-long-playing albums that catered to the group's core obsessions, with both its full-length Up Records releases--This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think AboutandThe Lonesome Crowded Westclocking in at more than 70 minutes in length. So it's refreshing to hear this supremely odd rock band at its most economical.Building Nothing Out of Somethingcatches singles, compilation tunes, and more--none of which were ever intended to be sequenced as an album. As a narrative whole, the singles take on a visionary quality, discerning worldly, bent revelations in the everyday world. The swervy vocals that Isaac Brock has made his trademark sound as languidly distressed as ever, stricken by marvel and ghastly awakenings in equal measures. The music serves Brock well, sounding wobbly and sturdy at once, as if it barely teeters on chaos's brink at a variety of mostly midtempo paces. "Never Ending Math Equation," "A Life of Arctic Sounds," and "Other People's Lives" play the most stoutly, with the tonally clean guitars breaking across all the angular phrasings and rhythms Modest Mouse thrive on while Brock's voice goes from warpy drollery to exasperated wail in the face of his task as a singer and writer.--Andrew Bartlett