The Golden Casket

The Golden Casket is almost a complete package. Its 12 songs are remarkably tight and focused for a Modest Mouse album, which again feels reflective of the composed, focused headspace Brook seems to be in. It’s another wonderful, soulful release by one of the world’s most singular rock bands and wholly obliterates the retrograde notion that musicians require tortured head scapes to create rich, compelling art.

With the band’s first album in six years, Modest Mouse prove they have the staying power to remain atop the indie rock heap with their knack for harnessing a whimsical energy combined with tight little nuggets of sound and various fragments from diverse styles and genres to create something entirely different that is both exciting and fresh.

Though The Golden Casket shows Modest Mouse at their most accessible and tuneful, a creative shift that started with 2004's Good News For People Who Love Bad News, they return to some of the experimental aspects that defined so much of their early work.

The Golden Casket reveals itself to not only be the group’s most colorful release in quite some time, but also one of their most consistent.

Tries to understand where to go, and whether he's already there. ... Life is a casket. And it's golden. Both are true. Brock apparently has figured it out. [Aug 2021, p.80]

A worthy follow-up to Strangers To Ourselves. Though more controlled than the band has been of late, The Golden Casket still has its share of outlandish moments. From its amalgamation of influences to its raucous rhythms to its bizarre lyrics, there is plenty of Modest Mouse to go around.

While The Golden Casket doesn’t match the heights attained by some of Modest Mouse’s earlier work, it’s their first album since 2000’s triumphant The Moon & Antarctica that doesn’t feel like it could benefit from some editing.

For a genre replete with posturing, it’s beyond refreshing to receive an album that so readily wears its heart on its sleeve, especially from a band so esteemed: with so much to potentially lose. Modest Mouse have made gains simply by being themselves. This is comfort food for the well-worn soul.

What The Golden Casket is missing is the kind of contagious earworm that made Modest Mouse radio mainstays. There’s no “Float On” here. There’s not even a “Dashboard.” But the album rewards the time and patience it demands in a way the last couple haven’t.

Modest Mouse's finest work since Good News for People Who Love Bad News.

This is not quite Modest Mouse at their best, but they’re not a million miles away from it, either.

Those in thrall to Modest Mouse’s well-honed blend of ramshackle punk-folk and predilection for dispensing off-grid wisdom will find much favour with the latest addition to their canon. [Aug 2021, p.31]

Most of the songs on The Golden Casket don’t sound like they’re of a piece, and while the album has its moments, an overall lack of cohesion means they quickly fade.