Modest Mouse – “The Sun Hasn’t Left”

James Joiner

Modest Mouse – “The Sun Hasn’t Left”

James Joiner

A week from today, indie rock all-stars Modest Mouse will return with The Golden Casket, their first new album in six years. Modest Mouse recorded the LP in Los Angeles and Portland with producers Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee, and the early singles “We Are Between” and “Leave A Light On” are big and bright and optimistic. That’s also the case with the new single that the band just shared.

The latest Modest Mouse single — presumably the last one that the band will release before the album arrives — is called “The Sun Hasn’t Left.” It’s got a whole lot of keyboards going on, and it’s built a sprightly riff that sounds like a xylophone. Isaac Brock has seriously toned down his strangulated yawp, and the track is positively bouncy, which is not an adjective that I generally associate with Modest Mouse.

Lyrically, “The Sun Hasn’t Left” is all about the search for meaning beyond the quick hit of online interactions. Like virtually every musician who was making records in the ’90s, Brock sounds notably suspicious of the internet: “Well, there’s more to life than online dating sites/ Or hell, you pick the vice, I know that’s not concise.” Listen below.

The Golden Casket is out 6/25 on Epic.

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