Scratch a Track: Music Review and Commentary Podcast · The Dude and Grimm Show

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Album Review Podcast

·38 min·2 clips

The hosts zero in on “Good Times Are Killing Me,” including the Flaming Lips’ additional instrumentation.

Good news meets bad news here. Dude and Grim open with their own college-era Modest Mouse memories, so the review feels less like a ruling and more like two friends pulling an old record back off the shelf. They came to the band from different angles. One had already been drawn in by The Lonesome Crowded West and Moon in Antarctica, with Alex Ferta getting credit for the nudge. Then the track list starts doing its thing. Horn Intro is the first snag. They think it is cool, but they also hear how jarring it is next to the older material. The brass jumps out because they do not remember earlier Modest Mouse records using horns that boldly, and that surprise turns into a quick detour about how ready-made the part feels for sampling. The World at Large eases things down. After that sharp opener, they hear the second track as slow, pleasant, and almost weirdly gentle, with Isaac Brock singing in a way that feels different from the older records. They do not wave that change away. They get why some fans may have bounced off the first stretch, especially if they wanted the rougher version of the band. Float On is the turn. To them, it has the album's pop pull while keeping enough of Brock's voice to still sound like Modest Mouse. The guitar matters too: cleaner, catchy, and not buried in heavy distortion. Even so, they hear the odd little bits underneath. The vocal sounds and sideways turns keep the single from feeling like a full break, which makes the fan reaction more complicated than simple sellout talk. The review keeps its loose shape. They drift through production details, old memories, and what earlier listeners might have found strange, then point people toward their other Modest Mouse episodes. Casual, but not empty. The charm is in hearing them check their memories against the record while still coming back to what each track is doing.

As heard by us

A loose Modest Mouse discussion that follows the album's shift from a jarring opening into pop-leaning songs while staying focused on the music.

Scratch-a-Track gives Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News a loose, song-by-song conversation that stays close to the record itself.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

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Press play if you want a conversational take on Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News.

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