Endless Crush Of Crests

Modest Mouse “The Sun Hasn’t Left”

Modest Mouse is not a band known for optimistic lyrics, but on “The Sun Hasn’t Left” Isaac Brock plays against type by taking stock of the world as we’ve known it in the recent past and offering a sentiment that boils down to “yeah, things are fucked but the world is still going.” It’s the kind of positivity that comes from a mind that’s predisposed to negativity, enough so to be able to tell the difference between problems and absolute catastrophes. There’s no promise that things will always be okay or that collective luck won’t eventually run out, just that it hasn’t happened yet and so you need to embrace what’s still good. Brock’s tone is weary but thoroughly kind, his voice poking through an arrangement of dense beats and a very artificial mirimba hook like a little flower growing through cracks in concrete. He never sounds preachy or like anyone but a guy who at bare minimum knows enough to tell you that a life spent doom scrolling is no life at all.

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