Strangers to Ourselves

AlbumMar 13 / 201515 songs, 56m 59s99%
Indie Rock
Popular

After an eight-year break between albums, Modest Mouse return with a wonderfully diverse effort that\'s well worth the wait. Marked by haunting arrangements and stunning detail, *Strangers to Ourselves* finds founding frontman (and chief songwriter) Isaac Brock at his most commanding—no matter the approach. While the experimental dance tune “Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)” features stuttering rhythms and a gooey, pitched-down vocal performance, early fans will relish the rain of guitars on the thunderous highlight “The Tortoise and the Tourist.”

6.4 / 10

Modest Mouse have been working on their new album for longer than many bands have existed. After reports of bizarre guest spots, shifting producers, and the departure of founding bassist Eric Judy, Strangers to Ourselves betrays no signs of its troubled birth, for better and for worse.

B

Don’t call it a comeback: Modest Mouse will be the first to tell you that it never really went away in the first place. The group just stopped making records for a while, taking on the right mix of touring, soundtrack work, and home-studio construction to stave off an official hiatus.

5 / 10

7 / 10

Modest Mouse's return is a mostly rewarding, overlong, uneven affair that provides enough promise to hope for better things to come.

7.0 / 10

Modest Mouse’s sixth proper LP, Strangers to Ourselves, doesn’t just feature a clever moniker. The concept is a recurring…

Check out our album review of Artist's Strangers to Ourselves on Rolling Stone.com.

It’s an album only Modest Mouse could make.

This booster shot wore off quickly and Brock receded from the spotlight, sitting out the better part of a decade before re-emerging with Strangers to Ourselves in the spring of 2015.

Modest Mouse finally return after eight years, and with new album Strangers To Ourselves, it sounds like they never went away.

8 / 10

If ever an artist were to plan an eight-year wait between releases, following Modest Mouse's lead would be a wise move. Not that anyone shou...

7.0 / 10

Modest Mouse return from years of silence with maturity and sophistication, but maintain their established patterns of building worlds within their songs. Strangers to Ourselves is an album noticeably moodier than their groundbreaking '00s output.

8 / 10

Music Review: Modest Mouse - Strangers To Ourselves.

The American indie act’s first album in eight years is enjoyably inventive, if occasionally heavy going

Their music once defined by wanderlust, stylistically and thematically, Modest Mouse now seems content with driving ranges and bingo night.

6 / 10

6.3 / 10

Review of the new album by Modest Mouse 'Strangers to Ourselves.' The full-length comes out 2/17 on Sony Records. The lead single is "Lampshades on Fire."

Isaac Brock’s pal-up with Outkast’s Big Boi suggested Modest Mouse’s new album might be something quite different – but it’s really not

60 %

Album Reviews: Modest Mouse – Strangers To Ourselves

3.0 / 5

Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves review: Why would we ever want to wake up?

8 / 10