keepers - 3
keeper avg .250
The album comprises various singles and B-sides from 1996 to 1998, and at that point in their career, the sound could be characterized as slow, jagged, and very loose. Opener "Never Ending Math Equation" and the deliberate "Broke" are as close to conventional songs as Modest Mouse gets, and they stand out from sparser tracks like "Interstate 8", "A Life Of Arctic Sounds" (which riffs on the ' 'x' miles is long drive inside a car' for what seems like a long time), and "Grey Ice Water', "Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive Negative)", all of which make heavy use of someone's whammy/tremolo bar and are especially angular. "Other People's Lives" and "Workin' On Leavin The Livin'"**** make use of some pretty cool guitar loops but cover very little ground musically. "All Night Diner"**** sticks out from the somber proceedings like the glowing beacon its name suggests; it's the one moment of levity and groove on the entire album, however drunken and silly. "Sleepwalkin'"***** is another of easily digestible little ditty, a hazy, David Lynch take on 50's doo wop.
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