An Eraser And A Maze

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<b>The eighth album from Modest Mouse is an end, a beginning, and a continuation—all in 15 tracks.</b> <i>An Eraser and a Maze</i>, the eighth album from Modest Mouse, is an end, a beginning, and a continuation—all in 15 tracks. The end and the beginning collide spectacularly on <b>“Third Side of the Moon,”</b> one of the most bittersweet and beautiful songs in the band’s three decades. Shortly after a cancer diagnosis, drummer Jeremiah Green died on the last day of 2022; over throbbing bass and snarling guitar, the famously energetic Isaac Brock wonders why he couldn’t pay more attention to his quiet friend, why he wasn’t a black-box recorder to every thought Green ever had. Brock wrote the self-critical homage with guitarist Simon O’Connor and bassist Russell Higbee, part of a new version of Modest Mouse that Brock has steadily built over the past decade. The tandem also helped with the politically disappointed diatribe <b>“Look How Far”</b> and the gorgeous <b>“Remember Yourself,”</b> Brock’s ode to his daughters written amid recent bouts with mortality. After co-producing 2021’s <i>The Golden Casket</i>, Jacknife Lee returns for several tracks here, too, helping Brock build dizzying tunes where anything might happen. There is, for instance, the explosive opener, <b>“Picking Dragons’ Pockets,”</b> with Brock howling about choosing a life of love over hate. And <b>“Song About Nothing”</b> is an absolute highlight, stapling the snarling energy of early Modest Mouse onto a web of unpredictable electronic textures. The band that made <i>Lonesome Crowded West</i> and <i>The Moon & Antarctica</i> can no longer exist; Brock is forging ahead with new collaborators who understand his enduring tight-rope dance between chaos and control, anyway. This is, in turn, as energized and inventive as Modest Mouse has sounded in years.

via Apple Music

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