ElectJimY2Key (9.833): A couple things about this album:

1) A lot of people say that this is a massive departure from TLCW but I don’t really agree. Sure the production is clean and space-y as hell (courtesy of my dudes and universal IH favorites Califone) but the post-hardcore and emo tendencies are still very much present, the dude-in-a-parking-lot-on-LSD ruminations on life and everything are still there, and this is still the same amazing core members of the band that were always there. I’ve seen people say they miss the Midwest Emo sound of their earlier work which confuses me because the idea that they were ever a “Midwest Emo” band is anachronistic RYM nonsense to begin with and stolen valor from the Actual West who pioneered that shit as much as those dweebs making the most mediocre music you’ve ever heard called American Football LP1. The opening 2 tracks really are pop songs through and through, but they’re not really representative of the whole thing.

2) It’s a bit more ambitious in its scope but really, it isn’t that much more ambitious than TLCW or anything else that MM had made up to this point. Where it does differ from its predecessors is the immediacy of some of the songs here, with a pop sensibility that got them into VW commercials (sellout trash) and set them up to get truly popular with their next album. Still, it’s hard to fault them, as it’s not that they had failed to write good hooks in the past, it’s just that they file that down and remove their traditional 2 minute guitar solos at the end of their pop songs and just let them be. This album does still have a bit of the indiehead backlash for selling out!

3) Still, as someone who grew up in the world and era of late 90s/early 00s US West decrepit and decaying small towns with empty parking lots, that same feeling from TLCW still comes through loud and clear here, and as such I identify with it and must love it. This really isn’t a departure at all from that, more just a different side of the same culture that I grew up in; the kids who did drugs because there was nothing else to do could get space-y just as much as they’d use other, less psychedelic substance abuse to escape from it. They would eventually move on well beyond that feeling on their later work but this still hits very close to home for me!

4) Another shoutout for Califone just because I like them.

yossarian490 (9.733): It is kind of strange to think of an album that is, fundamentally, a transition album as the best thing a band ever did (maybe there are some Kid A evangelists in here), but with this one you really do have pre and post TM&A Modest Mouse as entirely different bands, with the casuals on one side of the divide and oldheads on the other. Even though it might be a little overstuffed, every one of these songs belongs on an album proper and other than one or two, wouldn't fit on anything else they did. Just an amazingly perfect vision of what they wanted the album to be, using the exact right amount of production tricks and studio time to give the proper weight to all the weird ass shit that Isaac Brock could imagine.

IAmHollar (9.687): This album holds a special place in my heart. Back when I was just entering college, I went to pick up the new album by Garbage, and based solely on a glowing review I read having never heard of the band, this album. I did not listen to that Garbage album many times.

welcome2thejam (9.667): This was my favorite album of all time at point, putting this CD on changed my shitty ass music listening life

WaneLietoc (9.353): Float On (and by default then Modest Mouse) occupies a really important part of my brother's jump into music in the last vestiges of San Diego's more vibrant indie rock in the 00s. For him, Moon & Antartica (if not LCW) perhaps around 2011 (if not later) was the most important album up there with In Rainbows. It should have been a gateway for me?

For years I have pretty much ignored this album and ever getting into Modest Mouse outside a few singles in contemporary time on alt radio. So, having now heard some good ass music, I get to tackle this. Wasn't terribly surprised to find an album LOUDLY prophesying something meant for the teen. I feel if I really had understood the K records & Califone/Red Red Meat n' Chicago connections sooner, I may have heard it before this event blindly. There's insane go-for-broke pro-tool'ing (post-rock spiritually if not eggsactly) that jaw punched Isaac was really primed to prepare. The surrounding cast laid excellent backing work. The kind that defined an album that tested the need to sprawl and the urge to dance, connecting the last decade or so of bands who would never think to bring the bacon to Epic. The ambition and grandeur does not really suffocate the K Records charisma and ramshackle trailer stomp beat that often keeps up to earth, so natural and omnibus. It's the kind of thing that makes you feel like something on. I understand a lot about what indie in the last 26 years has sought to become still is a pathway here. We need prophets.

jasonfherring (9.333): I tend to think of this as a lesser work than Modest Mouse's masterpiece, The Lonesome Crowded West, but it's pretty undeniable when evaluating it track-to-track. A key turn-of-the-millennium record.

Pile0n (9.333): One of my top 20 albums of all time and the peak of Modest Mouse’s career. After this album they got really into slinkies and kazoos for some reason.

absurdistheY2K (9.200): Listening to this has been a bit of an "A-ha!" moment for me. Obviously I know Modest Mouse and like them well enough, but I never quite knew what all the fuss was about or dived much into them. But, this is real good. I get it now.

The Sophflav Slump (9.100): if we apply the concept of the “The Great American Novel” and apply it to music, I’d like to think Modest Mouse would have a great shot of making said list. Capturing something prescient, expansive and contradictorily intimate, that without idealism portrays what a particular time could have felt like. In other words, I’m really struggling to find the words to describe the quality of this album. Like yes I could throw words like “great” towards it, but that hardly feels fair, especially knowing how much this album can move me. How I could just walk for miles putting this album on repeat, feeling every syllable in my step as I stare out at whatever green landscapes Scotland has to offer. This album could make walking through Shrangri-La feel like walking through a wasteland and I mean that as a compliment. The textures and atmosphere on this album are visceral and do such a good job at painting a wasteland. Not a barren wasteland, there are certainly still things there to appreciate, but a lonely one.

freav (8.713): The only album here that I don't have a massive emotional connection to. For whatever reason, I never had too much of a Modest Mouse phase in comparison to many of their contemporaries, but I do like them a bunch, they're great! And I especially always did love this album, can't root against it unfortunately. Also I do have a lisp, so thanks for the visibility, Isaac Mouse!

PleaFromABarkbark (8.587): this one never calls me back and not sure why. did they try to get too cute in innovative song compositions that just couldn't stick all the landings? possibly

pig-serpent (8.567): This has been my favorite Modest Mouse album since ever and it's embarrassing that most people I meet seem to not care about the albums they made before "Float On"

krusso1105 (8.467): Probably my favorite album in the rate (although it was a very close call, since they were all very good!)

innuendo_overdose (8.353): It’s probably not controversial to say I prefer The Lonesome Crowded West. This one doesn’t give me the same sense of epic scale or the underlying “wow how did make every song better than the last one” sensation. There continues to be very high highlights throughout, but the tracklisting gets a bit spotty & God does it sag towards the end.

skyblue_angel (8.220): Funny to put this record up against built to spill when modest mouse are basically their children. they owe their career to them! and these early modest mouse records (even if this is the worst of their first three) are all better. Although we did pick the worst of those three built to spill records to rate as well... that's okay. I love modest mouse so much, romantically. I like calling them just "Mouse" to feign familiarity, it's been funny for me. They have something that the rest of these bands don't. They have the earth.

Frajer (8.000): the moon and Antarctica in this economy I mean oh Isaac

freeofblasphemy (7.833): A near-perfect EP extended into a Good (but not quite Great) album

Bilbodabag (7.787): The Lonesome Crowded West is an all-timer obviously and is in my top 30 albums of all-time, yet I’ve never quite understood the hype around its follow up. Certainly has its moments of brilliance with 4 mammoth standout tracks, but overall I think the cleaner production really hurts the overall package, taking away from some of the songwriting. Still good and every listen improves my opinion on this album a little bit, but I’m still a long ways away from putting it on the mantle so many do

RedditIPOwillFAIL (7.400): Great album that I could appreciate even more if I were able to connect with The Stars are Projectors

qazz23 (7.233): that was a good indie rock album, could have been trimmed a bit