My Top 100, No. 39: "Missed the Boat" by Modest Mouse

One thing I've learned by trying to write about 100 songs in two months is that people who give their songs and albums really long names are assholes.

Thus I give you Modest Mouse's "Missed the Boat" from the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

"Missed the Boat" is an interesting contrast to the other big single from this album, "Dashboard." While "Missed the Boat" is mellow as balls and reflects on self-deception and how the things we value trap us, "Dashboard" is up-and-at-'em and generally sounds like hanging off the back of a motorcycle driven by someone you don't really trust all that much.

What they have in common is a rhythm that Modest Mouse uses to exit the chorus: here in "Dashboard" and here in "Missed the Boat." 

Which I don't mind at all--it sounds more like a signature than self-plagiarism, and the two songs are so dissimilar otherwise that it drives home the contrast. 

I like "Missed the Boat" for two reasons: First, it's just a step above what you usually get, from a lyrical perspective. So many groups just get stuck in the rut of "does it rhyme" that they never worry about cadence or contrast or any of the things that would make their lyrics poetry if there weren't music behind it. With "Missed the Boat" there's contrast (Looking towards the future / we were begging for the past) and clever use of alternative definitions (Oh, and we owned all the tools ourselves / ... Oh, what useless tools ourselves) and internal slant-rhyme (Sitting drifting around in bubbles and thinking it was us that carried them). It just feels like someone who could actually write gave a shit about these lyrics.

Second, this is an all-time great bridge. I know exactly how many times I've listened to this song and not at least mentally adopted Isaac Brock's silly, throaty voice for "Shake shake shake shake shake," which is one of those things that's so memorable it snaps you into playing along even if you're not really paying attention otherwise, like the clapping in "Blister in the Sun." Then it downshifts to a verse where everything--vocals, percussion, guitars--is just mumbled quickly and quietly.

It's just a really mellow, well-written song that gives you the chance to bark like an idiot every so often. Not much more you can ask for.