By
Phil Leckman
Grade: A
In Issaquah, Wash. three-piece Modest Mouse have built an indie-rock reputation on their inspired compositions and powerful live shows, and this, their first major-label release, soundly delivers on the promise they have shown so far.
The album's title says it all. Like a lunar landscape or a polar wasteland, the moon and antarctica is bleak and forbidding, yet strangely beautiful. Icy, crisp guitar lines meander like frost on a window pane, intertwining with singer Isaac Brock's haunted, wrenching vocals and an eerie collage of distorted tape loops, violins and sinister laughter.
The graceful starkness of the music is mirrored by the lyrics. While the songs address topics ranging from abortion to the nature of God, these themes are never stated plainly. Instead, Brock wraps his thoughts in disjointed phrases and bizarre imagery, raising disturbing questions and then refusing to answer them. The effect is powerful, creating a sense of profound isolation.
Overall, Modest Mouse invokes the inhospitable nature of a cold universe filled with empty space. They describe a dark world, where humans have only themselves to blame for their own unhappiness. On "Lives," Brock sings "everyone's afraid of their own lives/ if you could be anything you want I bet you'd still be disappointed - am I right?" It is clear from the rest of the moon and antarctica that Brock has no doubt that his pessimism is indeed justified. Even if the listener does not agree, however, this is still an engaging and beautiful album, worth checking out in spite of its desolate themes.
