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Modest Mouse Moon & Antarctica Release Date: 2000 06 13 Label: Epic Modest Mouse's Epic debut, The Moon & Antarctica, finds them strangely subdued, focusing on mortality as well as the moody, acoustic side of their music and downplaying the edgy, spastic rock that helped make them indie stars. Not that their first major-label release sounds like a sellout -- actually, the slight sheen of Brian Deck's production enhances the album's introspective tone -- but occasionally The Moon & Antarctica's melancholy becomes ponderous. Unfortunately, the album's middle stretch contains three such songs, "The Cold Part," "Alone Down There," and "The Stars Are Projectors," which tend to blur together into one 17-minute-long piece that bogs down the album's momentum. Individually, each of these songs is sweeping and haunting in its own right, but grouping them together blunts their impact. However, this trilogy does provide a sharp contrast to, as well as a bridge across, The Moon & Antarctica's more vibrant beginning and end. Though it explores death and the afterlife, The Moon & Antarctica's liveliest moments are its most effective. "3rd Planet"'s simple, ramshackle melody and strange, moving lyrics ("Your heart felt good"), the elastic guitars on "Gravity Rides Everything," and the angular, jumpy "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" and "A Different City" get the album off to a strong start, while the fresh, unaffected "Wild Packs of Family Dogs," "Paper Thin Walls," and "Lives" bring it to an atmospheric, affecting peak before "What People Are Made Of" closes the album with a climactic burst of noise. Their most cohesive collection of songs to date, The Moon & Antarctica is an impressive, if flawed, map of Modest Mouse's ambitions and fears. Heather Phares, All Music Guide Tracks: Title Composer Time 1 3rd Planet Modest Mouse, Brock 3:58 2 Gravity Rides Everything Modest Mouse, Brock 4:19 3 Dark Center of the Universe Modest Mouse, Brock 5:02 4 Perfect Disguise Modest Mouse, Brock 2:41 5 Tiny Cities Made of Ashes Modest Mouse, Brock 3:41 6 Different City Modest Mouse, Brock 3:08 7 Cold Part Modest Mouse, Brock 5:00 8 Alone Down There Modest Mouse, Brock 2:21 9 Stars Are Projectors Modest Mouse, Brock 8:46 10 Wild Packs of Family Dogs Modest Mouse, Brock 1:45 11 Paper Thin Walls Modest Mouse, Brock 3:01 12 I Came as a Rat Modest Mouse, Brock 3:48 13 Lives Modest Mouse, Brock 3:18 14 Life Like Weeds Modest Mouse, Brock 6:30 15 What People Are Made Of Modest Mouse, Brock 2:14 Releases: Year Type Label 2000 CD Epic 2000 CD Matador 2000 LP Epic

Group Members: Eric Judy Isaac Brock Jeremiah Green More >> Similar Artists: Death Cab for Cutie The Mountain Goats Hold Steady Rogue Wave Built to Spill More >>

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