Modest Mouse - An Eraser And A Maze

Thirty years on from the release of their debut, Modest Mouse have returned with a startlingly vital eighth full-length, and their first one for a long while that closely honours the spirit of that first record. 1996’s ‘This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About’ laid down the songwriting blueprint that frontman Isaac Brock has become known for; taking an indie rock base and imbuing it with flecks of everything from pop to grunge to jazz. ‘An Eraser and a Maze’ has Isaac still exploring all these, but comes with a sense of cohesion missing from their last two albums, 2021’s ‘The Golden Casket’ and 2015’s ‘Strangers to Ourselves’.


Here, we get everything from the raw, classic folk of ‘Dogbed in Heaven / Give It a Skeleton’ to the spacey, Flaming Lips-esque synth rocker ‘Absolutely Necessary Never’, via the tried-and-true indie rock of opener ‘Picking Dragons’ Pockets’, as well as the superb ‘Speak and Spell’. He’s on characteristically inscrutable lyrical form and happily admits that even he isn’t sure what ties these songs together thematically. Nevertheless, there’s a verve and dynamism to even the slower songs that suggest he has once again tapped into a rich vein of form, three decades after announcing himself as one of US alternative rock’s most idiosyncratic voices. Long may it continue.