The American group Modest Mouse was founded around 1993 and broke through in America in 1997 with the album Lonesome Crowded West. Their music can best be described as extroverted indie rock with a leading role for singer and guitarist Isaac Brock who turns every song into a true play in which humor and drama often draw close to each other. On their seventh album, which has traditionally been given
… a long title, it immediately hits the spot with opener March Into The Sea in which Brock rages like a nasty pirate. Musically, the punk funk, still reigning in 2007, did not go unnoticed by the group and the music is angular and with jerky and bumpy guitar work. None other than the former The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr is partly responsible for this. He is even performed as a permanent member of the band. From the sensitive and quick-witted dandy Morrissey to the blunt American crook Brock must have been more than an enormous step for this British string wonder, but he certainly did his part to this robust and amusing Modest Mouse album. (MR)more
