Mousetradamus

Now that Strangers to Ourselves - Modest Mouse's long-awaited sixth album - has been out for a good few weeks, I think it's time I looked back at my predictions (made back in December, when the album was first announced) to see how well I did. Can I predict the musical future, or do I need to get my crystal ball looked at? Let's find out...

• There will be swearing. Correct! While Strangers isn't quite as foul-mouthed as some of the band's previous work, it *does* contain a song called Shit in Your Cut. So...yeah. One point for me!

• There will be nautical references. Again, not as many as there were on previous records, but the presence of Sugar Boats ensures that I was at least somewhat on the money with this one, too.


• There will be rapping. Oddly, no - Big Boi (from Outkast) did record some parts for the album, but apparently, none of them made the cut. The closest thing to rapping on the finished LP is Isaac Brock's bizarre performance on Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996):

• It'll have a really long title. Nope - in fact, at just 22 characters (including spaces), 'Strangers to Ourselves' is Modest Mouse's shortest album title to date.


• There'll be a sad, acoustic song. Regrettably, no. I was hoping for another Bankrupt On Selling, but the closest this album gets is Coyotes, which - while lovely - really isn't the same sort of thing at all.

• It will have at least fifteen songs, and probably more. Correct...just. Strangers to Ourselves has exactly fifteen tracks.


• The album art will use a red/orange colour scheme. I was waaay off on this one. The birds-eye photograph on the front of Strangers to Ourselves is very different to the heavily stylised covers of their last two albums.


• Several songs will exceed the six-minute mark. Mostly wrong - only one track lasts longer than six minutes. Incidentally, it's my favourite track on the album:

• There will be brass. And shouting. There's nothing quite like This Devil's Workday on Strangers, but I'm still giving myself the point here. There is brass on there, after all. And shouting.


• It will be awesome! I've only had the album for, like, 5 days, but early signs are very good indeed. It's great to have them back.

Total: 5/10

Not brilliant. You certainly can't accuse Modest Mouse of being too predictable!