The newest Modest Mouse CD hasn’t held up well at all - I was admittedly quite smitten with it at first blush, maybe it was just misty-eyed affection for its decided lack of trendy garage-rock or dance-punk signifiers, but also it just seemed to possess a messy humanity that’s missing from most overdetermined indie-rock.

Often Brock would say stupid juvenile faux-existential shit about God, but then he’d reveal an admirable self-deprecating streak that let you know he was just honestly working through all these philosophies and life strategies himself, and it’s always more fascinating to hear the process than the result on record.

Unfortunately, the whole thing plods like a bastard, I think sometimes they go for “shimmering” and just wind up sounding sluggish, like on “The World At Large,” which almost makes it there but not quite. Even “Float On” is starting to sound a little saggy next to better and brighter radio favorites from 2004. “Bury Me With It” and “Black Cadillacs” remain resilient, but thanks to the rest GNFPWLBN just took a plummet on my Top 50 (yeah I had to call it a “50″ to make sure we even included the album at all).