1. JayS.

   10

   B-e-a-utiful. I can't believe some of the reviews I've read for this album. Having just listened to it again I can only think they had socks in their ears. By the way I haven't heard the originals and will now check them out.… Expand

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2. James

   8

   I like Modest Mouse and I've liked a lot of what Kozelek has done, both with SKM and RHP, and I really like this album. The first few spins were colored by the overwhelmingly negative reviews, but once I was able to hear the album for itself, it presented itself as a terrific set of songs. The Modest Mouse versions of these songs are useless as points of comparison...they have as little to do with these versions as The Dirty Projectors' most recent album has to do with Black Flag.… Expand

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3. H.Young

   7

   Excellent production and performances, but there's too much of a good thing coming through too clear. Modest Mouse's lyics, buried under layers of fractured noise, come across as one aspect of a larger whole in that context, as a secret you can let yourself in on or not. But in this new covers record, they are featured. They deserve to be featured; they're beautiful. But there's not enough breathing room on the disc for all these heavy hitting songs to sit so close to each other. Where's the 3 minute musical segue? Where's the drastic variation from the original melody that makes it completely unrecognizable? Where's the sham that allows the secret? That said, I have already been caught listening to Sun Kil Moon's Ocean Breathes Salty on repeat, and maybe, through the multiple repeat listens that *will* occur, I will learn to enjoy this album as much as Ghosts of the Great Highway. But maybe not. Brought so much closer to the core of these intense songs, I find myself looking for the SPF 50.… Expand

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4. neilo

   3

   I give it a 3 because the guy can sing. But to take someone's songs, remove the nuance and grace that the original compositions had so as to just bring the simplified emotion of the song to the front, and then get credit for it as an artistic accomplishment is ridiculously wrong. Shame on anyone who considers this art. It is to music what cliffs notes are to literature… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.

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