• Record Label: Sony
  • Release Date: Jun 13, 2000
User Score
8.8

Universal acclaim- based on 150 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 7 out of 150

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  1. [Anonymous]
    Mar 20, 2007
    5
    You 2 are right this album is a masterpiece....of crap. Don't hate just because your precious emo became mainstream.
  2. tim
    Mar 20, 2007
    5
    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.
  3. time
    Nov 14, 2006
    5
    Give me a break! Spin magazine was right the first time. And this was back when Spin was considered groundbreaking. Nobody even payed attention to this album until "Float On" became a hit. People were pissed off at them for making it big so they just went to this album because it was more "Indie" than "Good News..." Hating a band because they had a hit. How pathetic. Good News is not only Give me a break! Spin magazine was right the first time. And this was back when Spin was considered groundbreaking. Nobody even payed attention to this album until "Float On" became a hit. People were pissed off at them for making it big so they just went to this album because it was more "Indie" than "Good News..." Hating a band because they had a hit. How pathetic. Good News is not only their best but it's one of the best albums of the entire decade. Expand
  4. TimE
    Nov 8, 2005
    6
    This is a fans only record. All the hardcore fans will say this is the best because it didn't have any top 40 hits. I aint no sell out and say that Good News... is there epic masterpiece
  5. GregoryS.
    Apr 13, 2002
    6
    Ok, I'm going to try to explain this the best way I can. I love Modest Mouse. When I first heard Brock's voice on Neverending Math Equation, I couldn't help but be interested. The voice grew on me, and I have adored the group ever since. I love(d) their stripped-down, rockin feel, and Isaac's lyrics always hit home, regardless of whether or not you knew what the hell Ok, I'm going to try to explain this the best way I can. I love Modest Mouse. When I first heard Brock's voice on Neverending Math Equation, I couldn't help but be interested. The voice grew on me, and I have adored the group ever since. I love(d) their stripped-down, rockin feel, and Isaac's lyrics always hit home, regardless of whether or not you knew what the hell he was talking about. Modest Mouse have songs that are as emotional as songs get: Edit the Sad Parts, Dramamine, Talkin Shit About a Pretty Sunset, Baby Blue Sedan, Positive/Negative, Other People's Lives, Broke, Bankrupt on Sellin, etc. I could go forever. But now comes along The Moon and Antarctica, an album time and time again I have given chances to grow on me, yet it fails to succeed. Purists will tell you Modest Mouse "sold out" when they signed with Epic. They didn't. They wanted to make an album with good production values and a lot of bells and whistles to enhance the emotional impact of their songs. But, instead of helping the listener connect with Brock's thoughts, the production distances us even more from the already emotion-less tracks on this sadly misdirected album. Some of the tracks here are almost unlistenable - Tiny Cities Made of Ashes sounds like it was fished out of a dumpster and then rearranged with a few ill-placed synth arrangements in the backround. Some, like A Different City, The cold Part, Alone Down There, and Perfect Disguise are simply boring, go nowhere and do nothing. Luckily, the first few tracks aren't complete throwaways, though they make me beg for what I can now safely call the "old days" when the band were more sincere. Out of the fifteen tracks on this album, there are a few that can stand side by side with some of the Mouse's old work: The Stars Are Projectors has that epic feel that made some of their previous stuff so engrossing, Paper Thin Walls, I Came As a Rat and What People Are Made Of are the kind of departures from typical Modest Mouse the band could have used more of. And finally, Lives is about as intimate as the band has ever got. More than anyone on the face of this planet I would like to recommend this record, because, like the Pixies and Pavement before them, they used to really be able to reach out to me with their music, whether they meant to or not. The Moon and Antarctica is a blemish on the face of what once was (and still might be) a very promising career. Just take "night on the sun", now that's a Modest Mouse song. Here's hoping one day I'll be able to find out what makes this album so good, like everyone has been saying. Collapse
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 22
  2. Negative: 1 out of 22
  1. 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.
  2. The music on The Moon & Antarctica is as lonely and desolate as the title suggests...
  3. Puncture
    90
    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]