Modest Mouse

"Missed the Boat"

by John Vettese

There seems to be a shared reaction to Johnny Marr's presence on the new Modest Mouse record: "But you can't even hear him!" It's true. For as much as PR wags have hyped the former Smiths guitarist joining Isaac Brock and his reticent rodents, the result of the collaboration sounds like trademark Modest Mouse, down to the letter: jagged chords, funky riffs, minimal arpeggios, hoots and hollers, all of it very physical and earthy in tone. While this speaks to Marr's versatility — he effectively joined a band with a distinct style and refrained from imposing his own distinct style overtop — it often feels like, wherever a new idea might have arisen, he threw up his hands and yelled, "Bury me with it!" Not so on the midrecord sing-song moment "Missed the Boat." A diminutive drum machine guides Brock's friendly fingerpicking intro until Marr's triumphant, clean electric guitar chord slowly unfurls, jangling in reverb. It does it again, riffs around in the upper register, then returns. If things didn't sound Brit-pop enough, an electric violin solos for a few bars. When Brock begins his musings — which, ironically, deal with the squandering of life's potential ("Well nothing ever went quite exactly as we planned/ Our ideas held no water but we used them like a dam") — the tapestry Marr wraps them in creates a sense of warmth, promoting the singer from rustic rebel to poetic sage.

See if you can spot more Johnny Marr moments that we missed on Modest Mouse's new We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (Sony/Epic).