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100

Checkout.com

Moment for moment, there's not a more significant collection of songs to spend your life with...

Pitchfork

For the first time, Modest Mouse craft an album, not a collection of songs. That they manage to go beyond any other rock band out there is staggering.... OK Computer must be mentioned, for Modest Mouse just got invited to the same club.

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Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

Production notwithstanding, the major-label move is the lyric sheet, which situates their circular minor-key riffs in a congruent worldview: eternal recurrence as infinite regress as cosmic bummer.

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All Music Guide

Their most cohesive collection of songs to date...

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Mojo

The Moon's musical and thematic diversity is glued together by Brooks' ability to instill even the most desolate musical climes with warmth and emotion.... One of the year's most oddly endearing records so far.

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Nude As The News

An absolutely awesome album.

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Puncture

Clocking in at an hour, and incorporating much schizophrenic style-hopping, this is far from the concession to one-dimensional economy often required for a major-label debut. [#47, p.53]

Wall of Sound

Plaintive, nakedly honest lyrics collide with keen observation... an hour of enrapturing atmosphere.

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L.A. Weekly

The Moon and Antarctica is darker and colder than their previous stuff, but maintains the very particular blend of peculiar lyrics and uncompromising rock that consistently weaves through all their records.

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Sonicnet

Isaac Brock's goofy, hyperactive child voice, capable of earnest whine and arch speed-rap, peels the lid off his inability (refusal?) to come across as cool.

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Select

Big choppy riffs and plaintive vocals recall Pavement in non-quirky mode. [Sep 2000, p.105]

Ink Blot Magazine

The music on The Moon & Antarctica is as lonely and desolate as the title suggests...

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Magnet

A dark album that shines very brightly. [#46, p.85]

MTV.com

Remarkably mature and absorbing.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

A sort of concept album about cold and distant places--creepy sound effects and odd nods to science and space abound--these 15 songs rarely settle into one place for long, opening with the characteristically potent "3rd Planet" before veering off into weird cacophony, jarring interludes, mellow meanderings, and general tunelessness.

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Salon.com

A visit to desolate regions... a 60-minute, 15-song treatise on isolation, displacement and a seemingly bottomless spiritual void.

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Rolling Stone

What is lost in warm immediacy is gained in eclectic cool...

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Billboard

Ultimately, "Moon" may frustrate because it really is a little bit of everything: spastic, Talking Heads-ish funk ("Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes"), campfire acoustic yarns ("3rd Planet," "Gravity Rides Everything"), and Sonic Youth-ish rock epics ("The Cold Part," "The Stars Are Projectors").

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New Musical Express

Their most well-rounded effort yet.

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Village Voice

The studio scrubbing leaves no noticeable film; even the effects--like the spacey guitar that launches "Gravity Rides Everything"--ring true.

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CDNow

But, due to poor track titling and a rather wishy-washy sound (first it's Rusted Root, and then the Pixies, then Frank Black and the Catholics), the album ultimately doesn't have much of a solid impact.

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Spin

The Moon and Antarctica does show Modest Mouse willing to change. Too bad it wasn't for the better.... Mistaking subject for style, Modest Mouse has chosen to accentuate on a tendency to drift rather than an ability to write emotionally effective songs.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 58 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

kim w gave it a9:
Amazing album. Have been a fan of Modest Mouse for a few years and for some weird reason only recently started playing this one - even though i've owned it for a long time - I feel like I've wasted those years of my life when i was playing it. That's not true, but sounds poetic. 'Dartk Centre of the Universe' is especially good. One of the all time best though has to be 'The Cold Part.

Kindall G. gave it a10:
I thought this was at once a peaceful and jarring record. Songs like "Cities Made of Ashes" and "Alone Down There" jolted me awake with their ugly abruptness, while spare, strange beauties such as "The Cold Part" made me think of dark European cities and lonely country roads. Basically, like much of their previous work, "The Moon and Antactica" explores the frightening and fascinating elements of travel, death, and the human heart. I think it is ambitious because it doesn't placate it's fans with catchy tunes; the record tries for something more: art.

T C gave it a10:
omg teh best album evar

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
You 2 are right this album is a masterpiece....of crap. Don't hate just because your precious emo became mainstream.

tim gave it a5:
Neither is this one ya assclown! I hate it when people backtrack instead of sticking to their guns and that's what people did with this record. I guarendamtee you had "float on" not become such a hit this album would simply be considered average.

dr. tufflove gave it a9:
While it is certain that anyone with a brain can agree that time e is an idiot, he does make one good point: Good News is one of the best albums of the this decade. Moon & A is timeless and confirms Isaac Brock is a friggin' genius.

ryan gave it a9:
Tim E, you are an idiot. Moon & Antarctica had people complaining about people moving away from their "indie" sound. This album had tons of accolades at the time it came out. Good News ain't a terrible album but itcertainly aint great.

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