Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News released

Good News for People Who Love Bad News Modest Mouse

Released: April 6, 2004 Peak: 18 US, 40 UK Sales (in millions): 1.5 US, 0.06 UK, 4.56 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Horn Intro [0:09] The World at Large [4:32] (2/22/05, --) Float On [3:28] (4/3/04, 68 US, 29 RR, 11 MR, 4 AA, 46 UK, 94 AU) Ocean Breathes Salty [3:49] (9/11/04, 6 MR, 96 UK) Dig Your Grave [0:13] Bury Me with It [3:49] Dance Hall [2:57] Bukowski [4:14] This Devil’s Workday [2:19] The View [4:13] Satin in a Coffin [2:35] Interlude (Milo) [0:58] Blame It on the Tetons [5:25] Black Cadillacs [2:43] One Chance [3:04] The Good Times Are Killing Me [4:16] All songs written by Isaac Brock, Dann Gallucci, Eric Judy, and Benjamin Weikel. Total Running Time: 48:50 The Players: Isaac Brock (vocals, guitar) Eric Judy (bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) Dann Gallucci (guitar, organ, backing vocals) Benjamin Weikel (drums, percussion) Tom Peloso (standup bass, fiddle)

Rating: 4.148 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “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 & Antarctica with a set of songs that are more focused, but also less obviously profound. The occasionally indulgent feel of The Moon & 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.” AMG “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. For a song loosely about contemplating death, it sounds strikingly vital and liberated; Brock delivers finely shaded lyrics like ‘We are hummingbirds who’ve lost the plot and we will not move’ with a barbaric yawp; it’s nonsensical but oddly climactic, conveying how what seems trivial can be anything but.” AMG “The View’s angular bassline and scratchy guitars underscore the Talking Heads influence on Modest Mouse, but since the Heads have become a more trendy touchstone (mostly for bands with less creativity than either Talking Heads or Modest Mouse), it’s nice to hear how Brock and company take that influence in a different direction instead of just rehashing it with less inspiration.” AMG “Feeling stuck is a major theme on Good News for People Who Love Bad News, but the same can’t be said about the album’s sound, which spans the forceful rock of the aforementioned songs, to the pretty guitar pop of Float On and Ocean Breathes Salty, to the lovely, rustic Blame It on the Tetons.” AMG “That’s not even mentioning the contributions of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who open Good News for People Who Love Bad News with the aptly named Horn Intro.” AMG “They also add a theatrical jolt to the wickedly funny, Tom Waits-inspired Devil’s Workday, which along with the noisy stomp of Dance Hall and Bukowski’s witty self-loathing, underscore that Modest Mouse haven’t lost the edge that made the band compelling in the first place.” AMG “Other standouts include Satin in a Coffin, a creatively creepy mix of rattling bluegrass-rock with a tango beat that nods to the group's backwater roots; One Chance, an unusually open and straightforward ballad; and the dreamlike World at Large, on which Brock sings, ‘I like songs about drifters – books about the same/They both seem to make me feel a little less insane,’ once again proving that he’s a past master of lyrics that are both abstract and precise.” AMG “Even though this album isn’t as immediately or showily brilliant as The Moon & Antarctica, Good News for People Who Love Bad News reveals itself as just as strong a statement. By drawing an even sharper contrast between the harsh and beautiful things about their music, as well as life, Modest Mouse have made an album that's moving and relevant without being pretentious about it.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Modest Mouse AMG All Music Guide review by Heather Phares WK Wikipedia First posted 3/29/2008; last updated 3/13/2022.

Modest Mouse “Float On” released

Float On Modest Mouse

Writer(s): Isaac Brock, Dann Gallucci, Eric Judy, Benjamin Weikel (see lyrics here) Released: March 8, 2004 First Charted: April 3, 2004 Peak: 68 BB, 29 RR, 4 AA, 11 MR, 46 UK, 94 UK, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 0.2 UK, 5.44 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.1 radio, 97.0 video, 495.94 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy, and drummer Jeremiah Green formed the rock band Modest Mouse in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington. They released their first album in 1996, but didn’t crack the Billboard album chart until 2000 with their third album. Their big commercial breakthrough, however, came with fourth album Good News for People Who Love Bad News. The double-platinum release reached #18 in the United States. The album owed much of its success to the first single, “Float On.” As the group’s first chart entry, it proved a massive success, topping the alternative rock chart and eventually reaching five million in sales. It also garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. In 2014, New Musical Express ranked it one of the top 500 songs of all time. WK In 2009, Rolling Stone named it one of the top 100 songs of the 2000s. WK Brock sings about “backing his car into a cop’s cruiser, being scammed, and him and his partner losing their jobs on the exact same day.” FO However, it becomes what Far Out magazine’s Tim Coffman called “one of the greatest perseverance anthems of all time.” FO Songfacts.com said it “was written to reassure that everything will be all right with life.” SF Brock recognized that “all he can do is just sit back and watch as the world floats on.” FO Brock was already dealing with the loss of two close friends SF and facing the possibility of his band imploding. They questioned if they had anything of value to say. They aborted their original album effort and stated fresh. Brock made a conscious effort to write something more positive. He said he was fed up with “how dark everything was, with bad news coming from everywhere...I just want to feel good for a day.” WK It became “a statement…that it’s possible to make great art out of creative tragedy.” FO Resources: FO Far Out (4/13/2024). “The Story Behind the Song: Modest Mouse’s survival anthem ‘Float On’” by Tim Coffman SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/6/2025.