Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West

Review

'The Lonesome Crowded West' dropped in '97 when Modest Mouse was still this scrappy outfit from the Pacific Northwest, way before they'd be playing in commercials or whatever. Isaac Brock's snarling, slightly unhinged vocals feel like that friend who's had one too many and starts ranting about suburbia ruining everything - which is basically what this album is about. The guitars on 'Teeth Like God's Shoeshine' hit like a truck after too much coffee, while they get all experimental with these weird phonogram effects on 'Heart Cooks Brain' that somehow just work.

Sophomore albums can be tricky territory, but these guys nailed it so hard they basically created their own little cult. There's this beautiful mess of loud-quiet-loud dynamics throughout that became their signature move for years after. What makes 'The Lonesome Crowded West' stick around in the rotation is how it shifts between wanting to punch a wall and staring pensively out a car window - sometimes in the same song. It's the sound of late-90s disillusionment without all the self-important baggage, and honestly, two decades and change later, it still hits just as hard. - Bo