Moon & Antarctica (2LP)

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Modest Mouse
Moon & Antarctica (2LP)

[ Music On Vinyl / 2 LP ]

Release Date: Thursday 23 April 2015

Modest Mouse's Epic debut, The Moon & Antarctica, finds them strangely subdued, focusing on mortality as well as the moody, acoustic side of their music and downplaying the edgy rock that helped make them indie stars. Not that their first major-label release sounds like a sellout - actually, the slight sheen of Brian Deck's production enhances the album's introspective tone - but occasionally The Moon & Antarctica's melancholy becomes ponderous. Unfortunately, the album's middle stretch contains three such songs, "The Cold Part," "Alone Down There," and "The Stars Are Projectors," which tend to blur together into one 17-minute-long piece that bogs down the album's momentum. Individually, each of these songs is sweeping and haunting in its own right, but grouping them together blunts their impact. However, this trilogy does provide a sharp contrast to, as well as a bridge across, The Moon & Antarctica's more vibrant beginning and end. Though it explores death and the afterlife, The Moon & Antarctica's liveliest moments are its most effective. "3rd Planet"'s simple, ramshackle melody and strange, moving lyrics ("Your heart felt good"), the elastic guitars on "Gravity Rides Everything," and the angular, jumpy "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" and "A Different City" get the album off to a strong start, while the fresh, unaffected "Wild Packs of Family Dogs," "Paper Thin Walls," and "Lives" bring it to an atmospheric, affecting peak before "What People Are Made Of" closes the album with a climactic burst of noise. Their most cohesive collection of songs to date, The Moon & Antarctica is an impressive, if flawed, map of Modest Mouse's ambitions and fears. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

Tracks:

LP1 - Side 1:

A1. 3rd Planet
A2. Gravity Rides Everything
A3. Dark Center Of The Universe
A4. Perfect Disguise

LP1 - Side 2:

B1. Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes
B2. A Different City
B3. The Cold Part
B4. Alone Down There

LP2 - Side 1:

C1. The Stars Are Projectors
C2. Wild Packs Of Family Dogs
C3. Paper Thin Walls

LP2 - Side 2:

D1. I Came As A Rat
D2. Lives
D3. Life Like Weeds
D4. What People Are Made Of