Not sure if I should be surprised or expecting that the majority is a fan of We Were Dead.
I thought The Moon and Antarctica was that pinnacle point personally, but I can see your point. The style went in a different direction after the band finished Lonesome Crowded West (partly forcibly).

I know I'm in a minority here, but I still think Good News For People Who Love Bad News is their best album.

No worries, I'm right there with you... :)

Beginning of the end for me! Few good tracks, rest are mediocre.

Are there any tracks in particular you find significantly worse than their back catalog?

Yes. Float On, Dance Hall, This Devil's Workday, The View, Blame It On The Tetons, The Good Times Are Killing Me. A few others have grown on me, and generally I don't hate these as much as I used to, it's just that his singing/lyric style changed to something a bit less sincere, and were bordering on cringe-worthy. For what it's worth, I like Oceans Breathe Salty, Bury Me With It (best one), Bukowski and Black Cadillacs (though parts of that one bug me). Now I actually feel like giving the album a listen now one of these days.

I so looked forward to that album, too. I was on the mailing list, I pre-ordered, and my dreams were shot down. I guess the album art has meaning.

I couldn't even bear to listen to We Were Dead... more than once. There were a few decent tracks, but the rest were so bad and cringe-worthy it just wasn't worth it.

I guess it is different for someone like you who had been around throughout their career and worked your way through chronologically, obviously. I started with Good News when I was about 15 and have kind of jumped around since then. And it's not that I only like the new MM sound, because I don't. I couldn't stand We Were Dead either. If I had to pick my favorites albums it would be: Good News, then Sad Sappy Sucker, then Lonesome Crowded West, then The Moon & Antarctica. So I'm all over the place haha.

And you seem a little inconsistent with you likes/dislikes on that album. 'Float On' is their popiest song to date, but it's still a good pop song, just like 'Ocean Breathes Salty'. 'Dance Hall', 'Blame It on the Tetons', and 'The Good Times are Killing Me' are kinda silly but catchy nonetheless. And different. 'This Devil's Workday' is eccentric and I like the horns, even if it wasn't executed very well on that track. 'The View' is my favorite. The horn intro and 'The World at Large' are great. I also love 'One Chance'. I am gonna guess you like 'Bury Me with It' because it is in Brock's classic, grating voice? I guess I'm not as caught up in Brock's voice... :)

Yeah that might be why I like Bury Me With It. It's funny when I first got into Modest Mouse and before Good News came out, I put Brock on my top 5 vocalists list. But then look what I said above regarding the last two albums...it's a shame. But oh well there's plenty of other music out there for me to listen to.

And actually I discovered MM after The Moon & Antarctica came out, that was my first exposure. But then I went back and listened to and fell in love with much of the back catalog before Good News was released. It was still a shock, even with TM&A being my introduction. Here's how I rank them, BTW:

The Lonesome Crowded West
The Moon & Antarctica
This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About
Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Sad Sappy Sucker (been ages since I heard it though)
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

you need Building Nothing Out of Something!

i guess i'm the only one here who feels they've been consistently good through their entire career. to me, every album is good. sure they're all a bit different, but at the same time, it's impossible to hear a song by modest mouse and not know immediately who it is. that's their sound.