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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
by Modest Mouse
'We Were Dead,' the Isaac Brock-led band's follow-up to its breakthrough 2004 hit 'Good News for People Who Love Bad News,' is their first release to feature their newest member, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. The Shins' James Mercer guests on three tracks.
| LABEL: |
Sony |
| RELEASE DATE: |
20 March 2007 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Indie, Rock |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Entertainment Weekly
This 14-track-strong album is very much good news for people who loved Good News for People Who Love Bad News.
91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Easier than ever to grasp, yet still constantly, joyously vexing, We Were Dead is another terrific set from a band that couldn't make something dull even if drowning were the only other option.
90
Tiny Mix Tapes
Music dignitaries and primordial fans will be contented. If they’re smart, they’ll rejoice.
90
Blender
Is there another "Float On"? It scarcely matters: 10 years into their career, Modest Mouse have stumbled into their best album yet. [Mar 2007, p.137]
90
Under The Radar
Not just an album that revisits the dancey guitar-pop that made "Float On" an unlikely #1 hit, but sharpens and emboldens it for their most accessible album to date. [#16, p.93]
90
Delusions of Adequacy
It’s a sincere album that is as friendly and rewarding as any of their previous works.
89
Austin Chronicle
We Were Dead sounds like Modest Mouse, only better.
80
Q Magazine
A fantastic voyage. [May 2007, p.128]
80
Alternative Press
Much of We Were Dead feels like a culmination of the sound that Modest Mouse have spent the last decade or so honing. [May 2007, p.145]
80
Uncut
[The album] adds a newfound sang-froid to their quiet/loud approach. [May 2007, p.100]
80
Mojo
A winner. [May 2007, p.106]
80
Billboard
There's more melody than usual to be found here. [24 Mar 2007]
80
The Guardian
The Modest Mouse frontman has the kind of overbearing personality that seems to bring out the best in Marr: their collaboration on the band's fifth album is thrilling.
80
musicOMH.com
This is a band working at the very top of their game, and this album is a beautiful, brilliant beast.
80
Hartford Courant
It's a successful experiment... largely because the differences between Marr and Mouse turn out to be more harmonious than anyone could have expected.
80
Spin
While Brock's pop instincts have never been more refined, his jitteriness has never run more rampant. [Apr 2007, p.85]
78
ShakingThrough.net
Clearly, what we’re dealing with here isn’t a new Modest Mouse, but one with a few new, calculated tricks.
78
Pitchfork
Another solid (if not necessarily great) record.
75
Los Angeles Times
At 62 minutes, this album feels self-indulgent, and some of the 14 songs leave little impression.
73
Almost Cool
In the end, it's not as excellent as their early work, but still pretty entertaining.
70
Playlouder
This could be Modest Mouse's finest hour were it not a little long - the nuances are occasionally rather swamped by the effort of listening to the hour-long record through.
70
NOW Magazine
The album as a whole does drag on, and the songs aren't as immediately grabby as those on their last disc, but We Were Dead is more interesting and varied than Good News.
70
Boston Globe
If "We Were Dead . . ." is a little much to take in all at once, the sheer mass of the tunes becomes easier to manage over repeated listens.
70
Drowned In Sound
In fairness, We Were Dead... excites almost as much as it frustrates; the problem lying not so much in its commercial aspirations per se as an occasional inability to integrate them into a satisfying whole. That, and there’s too much shouting. And it’s way too long.
70
New Musical Express
Both Marr and MM mainman Isaac Brock have a weakness for bombast that can make them sound like Snow Patrol playing Gogol Bordello, but the album heaves with vim and variety.
70
Slant Magazine
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is a really good, if not necessarily phenomenal, rock record.
70
Dot Music
The problem is, there's simply too much record here.
70
The New York Times
The results are enthralling, even when they seem to be thrashing at coherence. [19 Mar 2007]
70
Rolling Stone
Like everything the band has released since signing with Epic in the teeth of a millennial panic, it's louder and somewhat less twisty than the group's indie output.
70
Amazon.com
We Were Dead... is denser than its predecessor with tunes that seem willfully harder to penetrate.
68
Lost At Sea
A disproportionate amount of the album's tracks sound like a commercialized knockoff of previous songs, past highlights revisited after a process of radio ready distillation.
65
Prefix Magazine
It's exhausting.
65
Hot Press
There are some excellent moments.
60
PopMatters
While it is, at times, a challenging listen, there are enough catchy moments to prompt enough listens for the thing to grow on you.
60
All Music Guide
Too often it seems as if Modest Mouse plays it safe on We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
60
Village Voice
Imagine the cheerful fatalism of "Float On" without the hooks, which is bizarre: Hooks would seem to be Marr's specialty.
50
Stylus Magazine
Brock’s idiosyncratic worldview, so much a part of what made Modest Mouse special to begin with, has left the building.
50
cokemachineglow
It’s inoffensive, painfully so, with the smell of something run through focus groups from the get go, written and produced by committee to sell the greatest number of copies.
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 208 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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