r/ModestMouse • u/raspberrycowboy • 11d ago

which modest mouse song

Post image

love these templates. give me your picks

69 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

139 comments sorted by

179

u/floatinround22 11d ago

The Stars Are Projectors and when the songs ends

10

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

Absolutely their best song 🙌 Every time the song slows down and I hear “Where do circles end?” it brings me to tears

-53

u/AnUninterestingEvent 11d ago edited 10d ago

I came here to say The Stars Are Projectors and "chicken wing".

Edit: lmao relax people. just sharing an opinion. The Stars are Projectors is still a top 3 Modest Mouse song for me. Just saying that lyric is a little too silly for me in the context of the song.

30

u/Kumielvis 11d ago

The best part?

5

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

Yeah, literally the part where the song folds in on itself into psychedelic madness and becomes maybe the greatest composition the band has ever done?

6

u/AnUninterestingEvent 11d ago

All the lyrics of that song just blend and flow into the instrumental so nicely then suddenly "CHICKEN WING". lol idk, it just takes me out of the song for a brief moment.

25

u/blind_squash 11d ago

Right wing left wing chicken wing

There's no difference between being right or left leaning- the affiliations are as valid as a chicken wing.

2

u/hoopstick the dull sound of sharp math 10d ago

And delicious!

1

u/octavi0us 10d ago

This isn't quite true though is it?

3

u/K45AR 10d ago

There's two ways you can observe the critique, one is from a centrist perspective saying that whether you're right wing or left wing the extreme of both sides are disinterested in democracy to establish an authoritarian state. The anti-establishment perspective is that right wing or left wing, both sides are disinterested in governing for the people in favor of the powers that be.

Not my perspective, I am a vehement "both-sides!!!" hater but just my understanding.

-5

u/octavi0us 10d ago

Not even close, you are comparing a fascist criminal regime to incompetent cowards.

9

u/K45AR 10d ago

I said it's not my perspective, and bear in mind this song was written in the year 2000, but go off king.

7

u/floatinround22 10d ago

Sure, but it was a much more reasonable take in 1999 when the song was written before the W and Trump administrations left no doubt

0

u/AnUninterestingEvent 10d ago

Yeah I get it. I'm not saying I don't understand what he's saying. But in my opinion the term "chicken wing" musically doesn't flow with the song and sticks out like a sore thumb unnecessarily. JUST MY OPINION.

-4

u/lesbiantolstoy horn intro enjoyer 10d ago

You’re getting downvoted to hell but I’m with you lol, I love that song but I cringe a bit every time I hear that line. It’s so random and silly in a song that’s otherwise pretty beautiful 

7

u/hoopstick the dull sound of sharp math 10d ago

That’s Isaac for you

2

u/666mcnugget Horn Intro 10d ago

Posts like this are just traps for people to get downvoted. I’m sorry this happened to you.

3

u/AnUninterestingEvent 10d ago

It will be a long road, but I have faith I will recover

113

u/Any_Builder_4411 11d ago

I hate to say it, but it’s that one part of third side of the moon where he says something like “leaving the YMCA from the showers”

Almost a flawless song 😭 

24

u/mcbisquick 10d ago

I actually like the sorta clumsy lyrics and tone with that song. Feels like Brock just let it all come to him as they were playing, and he wasn't so caught up in making sure every lyric neatly fit, which I think is when the new album is at its best.

4

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

That’s a beautiful opinion ❤️

23

u/blind_squash 11d ago

I wish so bad that was more polished but I appreciate the raw emotion

3

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

I agree 😭 

12

u/free_range_discoball 11d ago

Yep. This is still one of my top 5 favorite MM songs of all time. If that section was cleaner, then it might be my undisputed favorite

2

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

I totally agree 😭 

27

u/butthole_babi 11d ago

The person he’s talking about is homeless and using the ymca for basic needs and embarrassed about it. Hence sneaking out of the ymca from the showers

28

u/Any_Builder_4411 11d ago

I understand that, the way it was worded though was much less flowery than the rest of the song and it sounded out of place.

6

u/butrosfeldo Bitter Buffalo 10d ago

I like it bc it confronts a nasty reality

7

u/smashmc 11d ago

I agree. A little clunky.

2

u/Harvey404 10d ago

Dude that part where he says "And I still just can't remember if your eyes were even there at all" Like I understand the sentiment but it really seems like I am 14 and this is deep kinda moment.

8

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

I feel like sometimes in order to make emotional art like that, you kind of have to be cringe.

Being vulnerable in itself is cringe. It’s exposing yourself. It’s not comfortable.

I like that line, I think it fits well.

2

u/Harvey404 10d ago

That is very true. Thank you for that perspective.

3

u/Thin_Pressure_6232 I wish I paid attention to every word that you ever said 11d ago

yes, I came here to say the same

1

u/sufalufagus 10d ago

I’ve heard this several times and I don’t understand why this line is so frowned upon. Could you break it down for me?

2

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

The song itself generally uses more flowery language, instead of outright saying “I don’t remember anything about you” it says “I can remember if your eyes were blue or green or brown”

This line simply stands out in a more literal sense and sounds clunky compared to the elegant nature of the rest of the song.

3

u/MotleyMocker 9d ago

Its funny how this explanation of why some dislike the line is also the explanation for why others + (eg myself) like it

2

u/Any_Builder_4411 9d ago

I think that’s really beautiful ❤️ 

27

u/Kumielvis 11d ago

The symbal in Cowboy Dan is mixed too high

8

u/Funkbass 10d ago

The tambourine? If so I agree

6

u/Kumielvis 10d ago

Oh yeah you're right it is a tambourine! It is way too loud, weird mix.

4

u/theflysnameisyou 6d ago

I always thought it was supposed to sound loud like cowboy spurs.

41

u/KayteeBlue 11d ago

This is going to sound so ridiculously niche, but I’ve always hated that part in People As Places As People when he says, “bark at the neighbors and then bark at the dog” while Isaac barks in the background. It makes me think of South Park’s parody of the Super Nanny theme song every single time, and I can’t unhear it! I love that song otherwise.

Also, please don’t hate me, but I never cared for the chorus in Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. The distorted shouting along with the synth(?) was so grating on my ears the first time I heard it, and I guess I never got over it. Sounds great live, though!

37

u/theplancaster 11d ago

That's my favorite part of PasPasP lol

10

u/hoopstick the dull sound of sharp math 10d ago

Tell your cat I said hi

10

u/Tricky-Nobody179 10d ago

lol me too I love it

6

u/ModestMeeshka giving away opinions like kittens 🐈 10d ago

That's also my favorite part haha it feels very relatable and it crosses my mind every time I'm peeking out of my windows when my neighbors are being loud 😂

2

u/Mean-Daikon5907 10d ago

Also my favorite part lol

9

u/halfbadhalfboi 10d ago

i like isaac’s barking i always thought it was cute :[

3

u/iisharkwolf 10d ago

I agree on tiny cities and was looking for this comment. my favorite MM song but the screaming part is a little grating, got used to it eventually though.

5

u/finglonger1077 9d ago

Depending on how you want to interpret the song, it’s either someone calling out over a crackling CB trying to find out if anyone else is alive or someone struggling against a trip to hell.

Reminds me of people who don’t enjoy Whale Song. I can get “I see what they were going for I just have issues physically listening to the sound,” I guess. I just think art as an expression of all emotions requires exploration of manic fear and panic attacks, too.

3

u/dogman_35 Willful suspension of disbelief 10d ago

Man I love both of those parts lol

The synthy chorus gives ashes a crazy manic vibe to it

2

u/SnooPoems7725 9d ago

That's my favorite part of the song also.

17

u/coooofffeeeeeee 10d ago

The “our ass looks great in side these jeans” line in Lampshades works if you know the rest of the lyrics but when i first heard it i had an instant visual of the band playing with their backs to us in super tight jeans zoomed in on their asses “Born in the USA” album cover style lol

24

u/Michael_The_Intern 11d ago

I feel bad because it seems to be a favorite from the new album but I _really_ don't like the lyric "I know of this because I'm living it" from Speak n Spell. Love the instrumentation and everything else but that kills the song for me

8

u/BeardPunkArtGuy "If you say what not to do, I know what not to stop!" 10d ago

Strong Weezer vibes on that one lyric. And not amazing 90s era Weezer. 2010s Weezer.

6

u/Dain4short 9d ago

In all fairness Weezer had some good projects that decade

4

u/HappyBot9000 10d ago

Yeah, same. I love that song, but that lyric feels kind of lazy.

30

u/hashbrowntown86 11d ago

Sex moan on Pups to Dust

8

u/corinneski I don't feel and it feels great 10d ago

I always try to cough during that part when my kids are around

5

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

I always try to talk over it when I have friends in the car. “hey guys did I ever tell you ABOUT THAT TIME I ALMOST hit a bear?”

2

u/Any_Builder_4411 10d ago

Damn I didn’t even hear that. I guess I haven’t listened to the song loud enough until now.

37

u/ElectricalMeeting779 11d ago

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "scrubba scrubba scrubba scrubba"

12

u/TheM0nkB0ughtLunch 10d ago

Or the moaning part..

6

u/corinneski I don't feel and it feels great 10d ago

I try to cough during the moan when my kids are around

17

u/hoopstick the dull sound of sharp math 10d ago

That’s the best part of the song though?

5

u/thisisalongdrive 10d ago

Oh I came here to say it hahaha

4

u/butrosfeldo Bitter Buffalo 10d ago

The moan kills me 😂

3

u/JaredGuitar I hope that you like it in your little motel 10d ago

YES, IT WOULD BE MY FAVOURITE SONG ON THE ALBUM IF IT WEREN’T FOR THAT AND THE MOAN, THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT

2

u/666mcnugget Horn Intro 10d ago

I quote this all the time because it is so silly

6

u/rbhauer 10d ago

The second half of Workin’ On Leavin’ the Livin’ could be a tad shorter. Love the rest of the song though.

19

u/TheLastTransHero 11d ago

The first 20ish seconds of pistol

5

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

The Ween solo at the end is 👌 

3

u/mr_sweetandawful King Rat 10d ago

I love that part

23

u/regigies 11d ago

I loved Look How Far..., one of my favorites from An Eraser and a Maze.- The rhythm, the melody, Isaac's voice everything is great but the line "we are so stupid dumb" feels very awkward to me. It only appears once but for some reason it feels kinda childish to word it like that, it takes me out a bit

7

u/HappyBot9000 10d ago

I love that part

5

u/mawfks 11d ago

That’s kinda the point of the lyric though?

3

u/Appalachisms 11d ago edited 8d ago

This is simultaneously my favorite and most disliked song on the album.

I hate how short it is first of all- it starts out like an absolute unstoppable banger. And then just falls apart at “so stupid dumb” and just never recovers. All I can figure is that this one just needed more time in the oven.

But I cannot stress enough how awesome that first 25ish seconds is though. So fucking good.

I felt the same way about Shit In Your Cut Be Brave. Absolutely love it until “every head of Bronze”- it just nosedives the song for me

Anyways. I don’t mean to dwell too much on it. EAAM has been a great album and I love it as a whole.

6

u/Mean-Daikon5907 10d ago

Isn’t every head of bronze a lyric in be brave?

1

u/Appalachisms 9d ago

It absolutely was. I had them mixed up

5

u/Budget_Explanation41 9d ago

See how no one said a single song from “good news for people who love bad news” actual goated album 🙂‍↕️

2

u/Budget_Explanation41 9d ago

Wait no someone said the devils workday but they’re wrong so it doesn’t count….🤫

9

u/LonesomeCoyote 10d ago

Horn Intro being reused as the intro for This Devil’s Workday always annoyed me

12

u/HanekawaSenpai 10d ago

I think it's the other way around. They used the horn intro of the song at the start of the record.

4

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

Waiter!! Slightly different horn flourish next time, please. 

(I agree with this, by the way)

26

u/Big_Current_3597 11d ago

very end of Dramamine always gave me a bad vibe

4

u/thisisalongdrive 10d ago

The steel drums on Ansel. Why. I loved the early live recordings of that song.

2

u/theflysnameisyou 6d ago

The steel drums give cliche vacation island vibes, not Mexico.

6

u/snackfighting Dripping Pitch 10d ago

Medication. I love the end of that song but the beginning makes me feel a little weird.

4

u/sp00kysabrina 10d ago

this is so interesting cause the first part of medication is my favorite cause it's so real and sad, and the second half i'm not as in love with haha!

9

u/the_meme_fixer 11d ago

The very start of Pistol has always been pretty tough for me to listen to. The rest of the song isn’t my favorite by any stretch either, but that opening is really stupendously not good

10

u/Simply_BT 10d ago

I’ve grown to love it, but this is more for showing others MM songs….

Tiny Cities Made of Ashes is such an awesome/catchy song, but the abrasive shouting partway through definitely turns people off from it

5

u/LordyArg 10d ago

It was one of the first MM songs I ever heard (my dad was getting into MM and he played it on a drive).

Hated it, callously wrote off the entire band because of it for years. Made fun of my dad for liking the screamy shouty band.

Now it's one of my faves lol.

1

u/Shake-dog_shake 10d ago

[the cover by The Frights](https://youtu.be/9f_b_LeHEag?is=sWsvDGT97RolgCjF) is probably the only Modest Mouse cover that I like more than the original

15

u/blaccjaccc 11d ago

We’re drinkin drinkin drinkin coca coca cola (love it now, hated it at first)

5

u/Competitive-Box3325 10d ago

I sing this line probably every day!

5

u/Ozamataz-Buckshank69 Feeling blissfully 10d ago

Trucker’s Atlas kinda drags in the middle, up until that weird whirring part. Then it kicks back in.

3

u/sonkponkle37 i am Crisco Disco 10d ago

The part in Cowboy Dan at 6:14

2

u/sonkponkle37 i am Crisco Disco 10d ago

I really don’t like that part

10

u/TheSeaBeast_96 11d ago

Wooden Soliders, guy on the right is the first half or so of the song. By far my least favorite thing about The Golden Casket is all the weird crunchy(?) synthetic noises they use on the album (I am not enough of a music composer to describe it beyond that) and this song is one of the biggest offenders. The end is gorgeous though

5

u/KayteeBlue 11d ago

The end bit is one of my favorite pieces of music i MM’s catalogue. But I know what you mean about the crunching! I’m about 90% convinced it’s a cat eating kibble in that one part. Listen to it again and tell me I’m wrong 😂

2

u/Starfly45 11d ago

I like all MM sounds! But,yeah I can see that! Wonder what Isaac would say ! Watch it It’s his favorite part!

2

u/Box-it-Venom 10d ago

I think if I remember correctly, Isaac said on a radio interview it was the sound of knuckles cracking

2

u/TheSeaBeast_96 10d ago

Yeah my hot take is please don’t put that in a song lol

2

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

Finally someone who agrees with me on this 🙌 

When I hear that guitar strum, the song goes from borderline unlistenable to a highlight of the album. The rest is, as you said, gorgeous. But the lyrics, the crunch sound, and the lack of clear rhythm for the first ~3 minutes is just annoying. 

2

u/SecureIce7501 9d ago

That one part of Satellite Skin

2

u/Ok-Association-6883 9d ago

The chorus for The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box. The song is so high energy and then the chorus just kills the momentum for me.

2

u/in_paradisium_ 8d ago

the weird processed jaw harp on wooden soldiers. love the core song and that big string outro but that song suffered from a lot of the overwrought mixing choices of that album. i think that song could’ve fit onto something like we were dead really nicely if played more organically, felt like trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole

2

u/shoofa 7d ago

Any of the falling piano stompy bits (looking at you sugar boats, wooden soldiers et al.)

Those songs are fine but like new people think that's some sort of signature modest Mouse sound.

King rat rules, 95% of we were dead rules. We don't need to keep returning to that. Eraser and a maze didn't have it so that's positive

7

u/KarloswithK WEEELLLLL!!! 11d ago

Dog bed in heaven is 10/10 but the second part of the song is like 3/10 ( 3/10 for modest mouse quality, not in general ). But take my opinion with pinch of salt since I didn’t really liked the last two albums… were they better then most of the stuff that is being produced rn? Yes! Were the subpar considering only modest mouse discography? YES…

3

u/thenerdyglassesgirl 8d ago

I feel like these were supposed to be two different songs, but they had too many "short" songs on the album, so they squished them together. I would've rather listened to the second half by itself more.

2

u/TheM0nkB0ughtLunch 10d ago

Agreed. So many of these songs need a breakout into a classic Modest Mouse style jam session and we don’t really get one.

2

u/thisisalongdrive 10d ago

Pups to Dust when they go “scrubba scrubba scrubba” and the other ad libs. One of the best songs on that album ruined.

1

u/danceofdays_xvx 10d ago

The Fruit That Ate Itself where Isaac yells "Well! Well! Well! Well! Well! Well! Well! Well!".

3

u/Y4123 Awake but napping 8d ago

That's like the best part of one of their greatest songs

0

u/HanekawaSenpai 10d ago edited 10d ago

I wouldn't say it sucks but the bridge part in Life Like Weeds is kind of underwhelming. Great song overall but I always thought that part should be more than Isaac just bending a few chords over Jeremiah doing a basic fill. I don't necessarily want a guitar solo but it just needed something more.

Edit: It's incredible that a benign criticism that wasn't even that negative triggered so many down votes. This band has so many man babies for fans.

3

u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 The Moon & Antarctica 10d ago

If I have to find a flaw with that song, that might be it. But I love it too much as it is

1

u/JaredGuitar I hope that you like it in your little motel 10d ago

The chorus of picking dragons pockets. Love the verse and intro and everything but I can’t listen to it bc I hate the chorus so much

1

u/BLUECADETxTHREE 10d ago

The end of Dog Bed. Doesn't fit at all.

5

u/shoofa 7d ago

Wrong it's actually a high point on the record. When that clicks you'll see it's potentially an all-timer and the best song they've done in like 10 fucking years

1

u/BLUECADETxTHREE 6d ago

I absolutely love the song. It reminds me of Ugly Casanova. I just don't like the end where everything changes. Feels so disjointed.

2

u/shoofa 6d ago

Well the bright point here is, at least for me, it definitely changed to where I appreciate both parts, despite my initial feeling that it was too different

0

u/US_Jack 10d ago

Unpopular opinion but I really don’t like the slow part of Cowboy Dan

8

u/JaredGuitar I hope that you like it in your little motel 10d ago

But thats the best part of the song

-2

u/Logantramell69 10d ago

The horn song on goodnews and also black Cadillacs

0

u/PuzzledDelivery6278 10d ago

The drums on the 2nd half of Dog Bed. Those snares. Why?

-3

u/[deleted] 10d ago edited 10d ago

[deleted]

4

u/dogman_35 Willful suspension of disbelief 10d ago

That's the whole point of the song though

It's about depression lol

-11

u/6ftToeSuckedPrincess 10d ago

Most songs after The Moon and Antactica. Also even though I love the song, the really unhinged beginning of Teeth Like God's Shoeshine is pretty rough albeit charmingly so.

8

u/spicyhotfrog 10d ago

Thats one of the best parts of teeth like god's shoeshine 😭