The earlier stuff is my favourite and in my opinion better. But I would argue that it's less commercially accessible.

lolwut...

at least we know they are working on it.

Big Boi?! Do not know of him, but am guessing by the spelling of "boy" that he is a rapper?
Modest rocks. Hands down my favorite group. Would be nice to hear some new stuff. Their latest EP didn't do too much for me, but King Rat is a jammin tune!

I hope he was helping as a producer. My head might explode if I hear someone rapping to Modest Mouse.

Agreed! We will probably be hearing about a new album for years before it finally comes out.

Honestly, I'd only dabbled in Modest Mouse until I read this thread... my favorite songs being Paper Thin Walls and Fire it Up. Now, however, I'm really getting into all of their different sounds. I'm not familiar enough with the entire discography to distinguish between pre- and post- Epic Records quality, but in my opinion, a band's willingness to evolve their sound and experiment is an artistic strength. Alas, sometimes (often?) the result is not as good as the raw original. But it's all part of the process, no?

you should hear my beginner's guide to: Modest Mouse.

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is a totally different basket of eggs from everything before it. It's still awesome and still Modest Mouse but it's way more considerate of the mainstream.

I have three Modest Mouse albums: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Good News for People Who Love Bad News and The Moon & Antarctica.

WWDBtSES and GNfPWLBN were the first ones I bought and therefore the ones I've listened to the most. I immedialty noticed that The Moon & Antartica sounded differently and I really liked the feel of many of the songs; rougher and more thought-provoking.

My only problem with the album (to start with) was the length. I bought the version with the additional BBC Radio 1 session songs on it and I didn't notice this until later so the first times I listened to M&A I reheard three of the album tracks when the album was supposed to end. This confused me and made me think "Haven't I heard this before?" and "Isn't it finished soon?". Sometimes I didn't have the patience to listen to the entire album.

Now that I've heard through the entire album several times (and ended it after 15 songs), I like it a lot better. There's something special about listening to an album as a whole - it really changes what I think of it. (And nearly always it's a positive change.)