CD of The Week

Over the past 20 years, Modest Mouse have made slightly off-kilter indie rock that veers into the mainstream here and there for the occasional radio hit (most notably 2004’s massive smash “Float On”), before skidding back into their own well-traversed lane. Main mouseIsaac Brock’s yelping or growling vocals and skewered guitars have been easily polished off many times, and on their new album The Golden Casket, there’s a shininess to their sound that takes the edge off some of the darker thoughts. (Hence the title…)

<p >The paranoid opener &#8220;F*** Your Acid Trip&#8221; swings to a strummy chorus as Brock wants to get out of an unpleasant, unwanted weekend experience. But there&#8217;s plenty of inescapable paranoia on The Golden Casket. The muttering of &#8220;Transmitting Receiving&#8221; is a long list of nouns until Brock sings &#8220;But some things aren&#8217;t visible / Like yesterday, beams of light, cellphones calls&#8221; revealing the theme of the song &#8211; techno-fear of a world inundated with invisible electronic waves. These fears return in &#8220;Never F*** a Spider on the Fly,&#8221; which also refers to the stalkers Brock dealt with in recent years. &#8220;Peeping toms at every window / Dangling a leash for your throat / Peeping and smudging, looking into every window.&#8221;

<p >There are also plenty of more reflective moments on The Golden Casket. The horn-boosted &#8220;We Are Lucky&#8221; is a meditation on our tiny place in this great big universe. The bright digital marimba beats of &#8220;The Sun Hasn&#8217;t Left&#8221; pits technology vs. the natural world. &#8220;Well there's more to life than online dating sites / Or hell, you pick the vice, I know that's not concise / There's still so much, so much here left for you / 'Cause cactus bloom, trees leaf and root.&#8221;

<p >In the midst of all this appreciation of nature and worry about the computer age is perhaps the most honestly emotional song they&#8217;ve ever written. &#8220;Lace Your Shoes&#8221; is a completely straightforward ode to Brock&#8217;s child and the joy in seeing him grow up.

<p >The Golden Casket is the first Modest Mouse album in six years and their seventh overall. At this point, they don&#8217;t really have any new musical tricks up their sleeve, so the songs essentially rest on what Brock has to say. Thankfully on The Golden Casket, he&#8217;s engaged in the good and the bad of the world around him and not ready for his band to be surrounded by satin in a coffin&#8230;err, casket.