Released November 18, 1997 Length 73:58 Artist Modest Mouse | Recorded May–June 1997 Label Up UP044 Release date 18 November 1997 | |
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The Lonesome Crowded West
(1997) Night on the Sun
(1999) Studio Moon Music, Olympia, Washington and Avast Studios, Seattle, Washington (tracks 1, 6, 7) Genres Indie rock, Rock music, Alternative rock Producers Calvin Johnson, Isaac Brock Similar This Is a Long Drive for Some, The Moon & Antarctica, Good News for People W, Building Nothing Out of So, We Were Dead Before th | ||
Modest mouse the lonesome crowded west full album
The Lonesome Crowded West is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Modest Mouse. The album was released on Up Records on November 18, 1997, on both compact disc and vinyl LP. The two towers pictured on the album's cover are The Westin Seattle.
Contents
- Modest mouse the lonesome crowded west full album
- Teeth like gods shoeshine modest mouse
- Critical reception
- Track listing
- Vinyl edition
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
The Lonesome Crowded West has been cited as the band's breakthrough album and featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1990s. The album was reissued on CD and vinyl by Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace record label in 2014, along with Modest Mouse's debut album This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About.
Teeth like gods shoeshine modest mouse
Critical reception
Blake Butler of AllMusic praised the album's diversity, noting the range of "quiet, brooding acoustics like 'Bankrupt on Selling' and dark and pounding thrashers like 'Cowboy Dan'", and called the album "indie rock at its very best."
Pitchfork Media ranked The Lonesome Crowded West at number 29 in their list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1990s, and the song "Trailer Trash" reached number 63 in their list of the 200 greatest songs of the decade. Spin ranked the album at number 59 in their list of the 100 greatest albums of 1985–2005, and Entertainment Weekly included the album in their list The Indie Rock 25. The A.V. Club has described The Lonesome Crowded West as the band's breakthrough recording. Sam Hockley-Smith, in a retrospective review for Stereogum, refers to The Lonesome Crowded West as "the album that made Modest Mouse a great band instead of just a good one" and writes that the primary theme of disillusionment in Brock's lyrics is "not pretty, but it's honest, and that honesty makes it beautiful, like Modest Mouse were desperately trying — and failing — to hold onto that last bit of naiveté."
In June 2012, Pitchfork.tv released a forty-five-minute documentary on the album. The documentary included archival footage taken during live performances and original recording/mix sessions.
Track listing
All tracks written by Modest Mouse.
Vinyl edition
The double-vinyl edition released on Up Records includes an extra track; "Baby Blue Sedan", and a slightly re-ordered track listing. Rather than having a gatefold cover to house both records, or putting both records in a single cover, the double-vinyl release was shipped in two different covers. The 2014 vinyl reissue on Glacial Pace contains the same track listing and two-cover configuration.
Personnel
Songs
1Teeth Like God's Shoeshine6:53
2Heart Cooks Brain4:03
3Convenient Parking4:08