![]() ![]() But he always sounds more believable on the gloomy stuff, and The Golden Casket gets dark. On the chipper side, there are a couple of easy-drinking radio singles, including the marimba- and drum machine-driven “The Sun Hasn’t Left.” “Lace Your Shoes,” an uncharacteristically earnest love letter to Brock’s children, is the most sentimental song he’s ever written. Even if you can’t place the vibraslap, the textural specificity helps these studio concoctions conjure any number of settings real or imagined: an Archie McPhee warehouse, a 1980s FAO Schwarz, the dumpster behind the Price Is Right soundstage, Danny Elfman’s rec room.Īs usual, Brock’s songs are a strange blend of forced optimism and unforced paranoia. On one song, band member Tom Peloso is credited with playing “Fun Machine, piano, mini Korg, and Crumar” on another, Brock plays not only banjo and melodica but also vibraslap, spacephone, and “soft drink percussion” (it involves soda cans). The album credits meticulously catalog each musician’s contributions down to their finger snaps, because this is the kind of record that differentiates between the sounds of different fingers. Early on, Brock pledged not to play any guitar on the record, and while he ended up playing some, the instrument’s frequent absence clears space that’s inventively filled by percussion and troves of obscure and vintage instruments. It’s some of the band’s most luxuriously textured work, a procession of pinging, clanging, reverberating tactile pleasures. But unlike Strangers, which was the first Modest Mouse album without new things to say or new ways of saying them, Casket has some unique sounds to show for all its slow-cooked experimentation. Even more than Strangers to Ourselves, The Golden Casket never tries to pretend it was recorded in a single time or place-a band that once worked in frantic bursts of inspiration now prefers lengthy, unhurried tinkering. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |