Good News For People Who Love Bad News

After more than a decade with Modest Mouse, Isaac Brock still sounds young and weird and searching, and never more so than on Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which follows the band's meditative The Moon and Antarctica with a set of songs that are more focused, but also less obviously profound.

The occasionally indulgent feel of The Moon and Antarctica allowed Modest Mouse the room to make epic statements about life, death, and the afterlife; while Good News For People Who Love Bad News is equally concerned with mortality and spirituality, it has a more active, immediate feel that makes its comments on these subjects that much more pointed.

The band hits these points home with a louder, more rock-oriented sound than they've had since The Lonesome Crowded West, particularly on "Bury Me With It," which embodies many of the contradictions that continue to make Modest Mouse fascinating.