Hi everyone, Bigthony Nametano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Modest Mouse album, An Eraser and a Maze.

Here we have the 8th and newest full-length LP from West Coast indie rock veterans Modest Mouse, a versatile and pioneering group whose one consistent member since its inception has been singer-songwriter Isaac Brock.

Now, these guys have been one of my favorite all-time bands on the indie circuit for a long time, and I count myself as one of many who got into the band during their mainstream peak in the 2000s, and only fell in love with them further when I went back and listened to their earlier releases like their debut and The Lonesome Crowded West.

However, my real-time travels with the band really wouldn't go too much further, though, as the eventual release of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank in 2007 pretty much led to their blandest record to date. Which I can't totally fault them for – most major label deals that former indie darlings made during this time period led to albums of similar quality.

But then it would eventually take the band 8 more years to follow that project up, and then that record became the worst Modest Mouse record, a title that it held for about 6 years or so, because it was eventually bested by The Golden Casket, a synthetic neo-psych nightmare which, honestly, I think is truly the bottom of the barrel for the band. It doesn't get too much worse than this. My only real compliment that I can give it is that it did genuinely seem like Isaac and company were pretty much going for whatever the hell they felt like on this project, didn't give much of a fuck in terms of how it could possibly be received.

Which brings us to An Eraser and a Maze here, which is the first Modest Mouse album I think I've had such high anticipation for in a while, which I think really comes down to the singles. "Picking Dragons' Pockets," which was a single to this record and the opening track too, is a great tone-setter for the whole thing. And while I wouldn't say it's a back to basics moment for the band, it's going back to something, specifically a lot of the sounds and vibes of the Good News... era. Even Isaac's vocal inflections hit with that kinda 2000s nostalgia. It's a vibrant, snappy piece of indie pop, with colorful production that has a kind of psychedelic twist to it. You could even say it's a more sensible approach to incorporating some of these elements into Modest Mouse's usual sound, as opposed to, you know, what they were doing on The Golden Casket.

And I really appreciate not only how, again, catchy the track is, but its unnerving lyrics too, which I feel are a very smart way of kind of wrestling with this feeling of losing touch with the world, popular culture, the social meta in a way, with Isaac saying, "Well, they'll go crazy if you don't go crazy somehow / And I'm not crazy 'bout what they're so crazy 'bout now." Also, further saying things like, "Uh, facts aren't facts on screens that glow," and making, in so many words, kinda like these allusions to mass psychosis and disillusionment.

The following track, "Remember Yourself," I think is a tasteful callback too. It's a beautiful ballad packed with melancholic acoustics that I feel like could have sat shoulder to shoulder with many cuts on The Lonesome Crowded West. And here, lyrically, we see Isaac kind of contemplating mortality itself, and thinking about what he's getting out of life, and the creative process too. "Cast my net into an empty sea / And yeah, I guess that I'm fumbling / For things to say that I truly mean / But they'll soon come to me." It feels like at this point he has to really think about and work at having something authentic and meaningful to communicate in his work. And it is kind of a reminder that when you are older and more established, and have to kind of make your own destiny,because life isn't coming at you at the same speed that it used to, you've got to kind of get up and make the best of it.

So yeah, again, I do think these tracks contribute to a great start on the record, but very quickly it starts to lose its focus and flavor, like the skipping and squawking guitars on "Life's a Dream," which, to me, off the bat sound like an Interpol song. Not a terrible Interpol song mind you, but I don't really feel like this driving, quarter-note post-punk revivalism is Modest Mouse's strong suit. "Third Side of the Moon," by contrast, is a little more like it. Though it's not my favorite song here, the patient guitar lines, the slow burn, the building layers that kinda reach an awesome peak toward the end of the song are a pretty gratifying listen.

But I love even more the track "Dogbed in Heaven." The layers of hums on this track, the loose acoustic guitars, the unhinged lead vocals – they all contribute to a kind of backwater folk vibe that a lot of Modest Mouse's classic work had in it, to some degree at least.

And considering how well it is still pulled off here, I'm kind of just bewildered, wondering why this wasn't more of a component to this new record here, especially considering some of the lyrics on this record, the age of the band, leaning into a more kind of acoustic, heart-wrenching, rustic, sage-ly sound, I think could have been a really good move. But instead, this is just one of many tracks in a tracklist that, as it moves on, it increasingly just kind of feels like a bunch of unpredictable genre hopping, as from here we get an interlude, and some of the contrasts between tracks after this get even stranger.

The song "I Can't Talk Right Now" is one of the more dreamy numbers, really washed out in reverb to the point where I feel like it loses maybe a bit too much flavor. The meandering structure in Isaac's vocals kind of taking a back seat in the mix doesn't help it either.

But then there's "Speak 'N Spell (Or Not)," which miraculously is another stroke of genius when I think it comes to rekindling the magic of an older sound or era. I mean, this song instrumentally feels like a dead ringer for numerous tracks off of the first two Modest Mouse records. And it's done just as well, even if there is maybe a bit of cleanliness and stiffness to the way it's recorded and performed. I also love that ascending refrain line of "I guess this is as far as we go!" Isaac's various guitar embellishments on this track are beautiful, too. I'm also liking the various metaphors in the lyrics about traveling and baggage. It's like classic Modest Mouse through and through, and not done in such a way to where it just makes you want to listen to the old stuff.

But after this we have "Rotten Fruit," which has a very curious feature on it as well. And I'm sorry, this track is just a non-starter, with its bustling hand percussion and whistling layers as well. This kind of sounds like the music bed to a YouTube ad for some organic soap that makes you smell like a mountain stream. I know. What the hell is going on here?

But then, even with this very rocky middle point, the final leg is even crazier, but at least there are highs to match all the lows. I mean, "Absolutely Necessary Never" is a synthy piece of gothic pop that, again, I don't think is Modest Mouse's strong suit. But then we have the "Song About Nothing," which is very blunt and very absurd, yes, but still has a rockin', visceral tempo and energy to it, and is at least funny. Well, at least funnier than the track "Stoner Party," which is literally a goofball detour track about, y'know, you and your friends getting high as a group. And yeah, it's also kinda going for a chuckle but is much less hilarious in practice than "Song About Nothing." In fact, it's a little cringe. I'm sorry, that's just how I feel about it.

Still, "Look How Far," though – great single, and still sounds great in the context of the record. All the singles, frankly, were pretty solid, and I wish more of the deep cuts kind of echoed the vibes and the writing of these teasers. And then the closing track, "Impossible Somedays," is fine, is passable. I don't dislike it. I mean, the record definitely starts stronger than it finishes, that's for sure. But even with the criticism criticisms that I cite, this is somehow the best and most enjoyable Modest Mouse album we have gotten in years.

Sure, maybe many of the highlights are kind of pulling at a bit of nostalgia and calling back to older sounds and vibes that have been proven to work, but at least in some ways it feels like the band is once again on the upswing. Because frankly, I don't know if I could have taken a record that was worse than Casket. That honestly would have broken me. Yeah, this album is pretty. It's fine. I'm feeling a light to decent 6 on it.

Anthony Fantano. Modest Mouse. Forever.