The follow-up to the Portland band’s 2004 commercial breakthrough “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” ups the ante on a number of levels: bigger, bolder production, backing vocals from the Shins’ James Mercer, and lots of glistening guitar from the Smiths’ Johnny Marr. But in many ways, it’s a refinement of what Modest Mouse has always done: willfully spastic vocals and off-kilter grooves colliding with unexpectedly sublime hook-craft. Subdued meditations (“Little Hotel”) rub shoulders with cracked-actor sound experiments (“Fly Trapped in a Jar”). Bouncy feel-good tempos (“Dashboard”) offset grooves that only a drunk trying to dance in ankle-deep mud could appreciate (“Steam Engenious”). Though nothing approaches the giddiness of its 2004 single “Float On,” Modest Mouse’s quirky pop instincts remain intact.
