lonesome crowded west

[HHL] My favorite album of 2007 was The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse. Now I suspect some of you are saying, "hey douchebag, that album came out, like, 10 years ago." And you'd be right, of course. But I didn't listen to it when it came out. In fact, I hadn't listened to a single Modest Mouse album until I met Aili, in part because I sort of tuned out new music in the late 90's, and partly because I'd seen them play a song on the O.C. and thought that they must be another one of those whiny, pseudo-hip indie bands I was rapidly getting sick of (please don't ask why I was watching the O.C., really I blame it all on MQ). So I was wrong. Desperately, humiliatingly wrong. Everything on this album is just mind-bogglingly good and it'll have you alternatively singing along, banging your head, and possibly tearing up. It's got a consistent raw sound, complex mid-song transitions, deep lyrics, and haunting vocals. I can't recommend it highly enough. But I think it only fair that Aili chip in here...

[AAM] In my obviously expert opinion, this album is flawless. I say this because I've owned the damn thing for ten years, and I still enjoy it. Any album that doesn't annoy you after ten years of listening must be good. I played this record obsessively when I was eighteen and living in Seattle and feeling, shall we say, less than cheerful. This music commiserated with me. And for the last decade it has managed to somehow apply perfectly to every other mood just as well. You know the dreamy almost sad and deeply happy feeling you get when looking out the window of a train and thinking about life's possibilities? This record even attends to that mood. I suggest you get the album, put it in your car stereo, and drive across the country listening to it over and over. Oh, and Hassan's mention of Modest Mouse on the O.C. reminded me of the time The Flaming Lips played 90210.

Song-list

01 Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
02 Heart Cooks Brain
03 Convenient Parking*
04 Lounge (Closing Time)
05 Jesus Christ Was an Only Child
06 Doin' the Cockroach*
07 Cowboy Dan*
08 Trailer Trash
09 Out of Gas
10 Long Distance Drunk
11 Shit Luck
12 Truckers Atlas*
13 Polar Opposites
14 Bankrupt on Selling
15 Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright

* favorites (but it's all good, we swear)