gly Casanova is the side project of Modest Mouse front man Isaac Brock. for this particular project, Brock enlisted The Moon and Antarctica producer Brian Deck and a host of others to lend their assistance in the release. The result is a record that, in terms of its sound, is very similar to the aforementioned Moon and Antarctica. More accurately, Ugly Casanova tends to sound very much like outtakes of those sessions. Sonically, the album is interesting and detailed, but further examination tends to reveal the inherent flaws of the album. Essentially, most everything on the album sounds great; it is well done. Sounding great, however, does not equal good songwriting- which is the main failing here.


The album opens with backwards guitars on “Barnacles”, a song with a somewhat simple repeating melody with breaks near the middle. Throughout the song are slight electronic percussive effects, most notably in the aforementioned break. At one point the drums are masked in such a way that they sound like they are emerging from underwater. It's a well-done track, though not very exciting. From this, we head into “Spilled Milk Factory”, easily the album’s high point. It’s driven by an assortment of slowly skittering percussive instruments and the occasional accent of a sitar. Throughout the song, Brock’s vocals alternate between crazed and an almost plaintive and matter-of-fact tone. It is also one of the many examples on the album where a double tracked vocal is used. On one track, Brock would sing normally and on another, he would sing with a bit stranger voice, or use effects on it. Admittedly, it is a rather neat effect to use, but not when it appears on nearly every track.


“Hotcha Girls” is one of the best tracks here. In many respects, it feels much more honest than the rest of the album. It is a quiet, acoustic based number with an almost hushed vocal performance from Isaac. Throughout the track the production is much more reserved than the rest of the album: the use of strings is subtle and vocal effects are minimal. Everything sounds just right and helps to make the track a definite standout.


Unfortunately from there, Sharpen Your Teeth begins a downturn. “Diamonds in the Face of Evil” starts out nice enough. The acoustic guitar’s melody is pretty and downbeat and the percussion is interesting, almost dirge-like. Once the vocals kick in, though, the mood is ruined. Part of them sound like they’re being sung out of a megaphone of some sort, accompanied with the completely nonsensical (and utterly irritating) proclamation of “shey shaw shey shaw”. From there the acoustic guitar becomes obscured in three rotating vocal lines, thus killing nearly any interest the song had. “Diamonds in the Face of Evil” also reveals the largest flaw in the album: poor song writing. Granted, there are some well-written songs here (“Spilled Milk Factory”, “Hotcha Girls”, and so on), but many of the songs take poorly thought out ideas and obscures them with production tricks to make up for the fact that there is simply not much there.


In the end, Sharpen Your Teeth is, at the very least, an interesting album. There is a lot of good percussion here, the production definitely catches the ear, and there are some standout tracks. Some of Isaac Brock’s more experimental moments on the album actually work well. However, the failures of Sharpen Your Teeth are barely outweighed by the stronger moments. Too often experimentation meanders into pointlessness, with silly attempts to frame songs around them- this is no exception. The album suffers from a lack of self-editing as many songs here are overlong, sloppy, and under thought. Furthermore, the segues on the album (“(no song)” and “Bee Stings”) serve no discernible purpose whatsoever. As an experiment, Sharpen Your Teeth does not have a very high success rate, nor does it have a very large failure rate. Overall, mediocre. And what's worse than that?