hypersongs

The Lonesome Crowded West

The second album: fifteen songs of small-town America, with Dann Gallucci on guitar for two tracks.
Modest Mouse, 1997

The Lonesome Crowded West was engineered by Swayze, with Phil Ek recording "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine", "Doin' the Cockroach" and "Cowboy Dan" at Avast and Jon & Stu's. Brock played guitar and sang, Green drummed and Judy played bass, with Dann Gallucci on guitar on "Trailer Trash" and "Bankrupt on Selling" and Tyler Reilly on fiddle. Its one single, "Heart Cooks Brain / Shit Luck", was UK only, in July 1999. The double-vinyl edition adds "Baby Blue Sedan" (4:04). Brock described its theme in a Pitchfork documentary as dehumanizing America.

AllMusic's Blake Butler gave it 4.5 stars, calling it indie rock at its very best; Christgau gave it an A-minus, Rolling Stone 3.5 stars, Spin 8 out of 10 and NME 6 out of 10. Pitchfork rated it 8.9 in 1997 and 10 out of 10 for the 2014 reissue on Glacial Pace, and Paste rated the reissue 9.5. Spin ranked it 59th for 1985 to 2005, and Paste 300th on its 2024 list of the 300 greatest albums. Ben Gibbard has called it the greatest Northwest record ever made.

Track listing

  1. Teeth Like God's Shoeshine6:53
  2. Heart Cooks Brain4:03
  3. Convenient Parking4:08
  4. Lounge (Closing Time)7:03
  5. Jesus Christ Was an Only Child2:36
  6. Doin' the Cockroach4:18
  7. Cowboy Dan6:14
  8. Trailer Trash5:49
  9. Out of Gas2:31
  10. Long Distance Drunk3:42
  11. Shit Luck2:22
  12. Truckers Atlas10:57
  13. Polar Opposites3:29
  14. Bankrupt on Selling2:53
  15. Styrofoam Boots / It's All Nice on Ice, Alright6:53

More from Modest Mouse

This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (1996), The Moon & Antarctica (2000), Sad Sappy Sucker (2001), Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004), Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again (2004), We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007), Strangers To Ourselves (2015), The Golden Casket (2021), An Eraser And A Maze (2026)

Sources

  1. The Lonesome Crowded West, Wikipedia
  2. Backtrack: Modest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded West, Stereogum (2013-08)