Though the album title sounds like it was borrowed from the avant-weirdos Liars, WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK finds quintessential indie-rockers Modest Mouse charting a course down the stylistic middle. They retain enough of their trademark quirkiness to keep longtime fans from feeling alienated, but they simultaneously put popwise songcraft to the fore. The dance-rock of "Dashboard" sounds like it could be a Killers outtake, and several tracks find the band engaging in the kind of post-Pavement mid-fi style that first endeared them to the slacker masses.
Isaac Brock sounds properly unhinged on "Florida," "Invisible," and "Steam Engenius," as the band pushes into overdrive, but there's also a brace of low-key, acoustic-based tunes that provide a perfect contrast. The Mouse is bolstered by some high-powered guests as well: Smiths guitar legend Johnny Marr adds a bit of six-string support, and Shins singer James Mercer contributes some backing vocals. Nevertheless, the fraying-but-fierce group dynamic that's always been at the heart of the MM sound prevails throughout.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.78) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's louder and somewhat less twisty than the group's indie output..."
Spin (p.85) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Brock's pop instincts have never been more refined....It's a road-trip sing-along album not for vacationers, but for escapees."
Entertainment Weekly (p.58) - "Brock has never sounded more charismatic, or chameleonlike, as he alternately croons, spits, and bronchially howls through lyrics..." -- Grade: A-
Q (p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Marr dazzles throughout....Modest Mouse show no signs of sinking into the quagmire of mainstream orthodoxy...A fantastic voyage."
Alternative Press (p.145) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Brock and his bandmates have filled the album with the kind of guitar-heavy dirges and poignant ballads that long ago turned them into blue-collar indie-rock gods."
Q (Magazine) (p.87) - Ranked #11 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007" -- "[L]oosely based around a nautical theme, it conjures up visions of a grunge Talking Heads..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Isaac Brock's vocal histrionics and Marr's itchy guitar scrawl provide a backdrop for cryptic, neurotic lyrical intrigue, but they're also capable of a cute romantic ballad..."
