This is a Tuesday I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. The new Modest Mouse came out, the new Ted Leo came out. Out of my strongest sense of moral obligation, I went to the store to pick them up. If you look up Ted Leo’s album on amazon, it suggests that you buy Modest Mouse. If you look up Modest Mouse, it suggests getting the Arcade Fire. Amazon knows hipsters. I also picked up David Kilgour’s album “Frozen Orange.” (Incidentally, Slate has a short article that mentions the guy that invented frozen orange juice, Ross Gardner Jr.)

The Ted Leo, called Living With the Living, honestly, I don’t have much to say about just yet. There’s nothing really tremendously different about this. If you liked the last records, you’ll like this. If you didn’t, there’s something wrong with you. Maybe after awhile I’ll notice something more about it, but not yet. I will mention that the first however many CDs come with an EP, which is really good. The EP is really unpolished, rocking, and rad. I think it might be live studio recordings. Try to get your hands on it when you pick up the cd.   Tiny Mix Tapes has a review of the recordthat’s pretty negative, but I think its better than they give it credit.  They complain that it’s too long (about an hour; they might be right), that the tracks are too long (some over 6 minutes…  again they could be right), and that “it’s political, but it’s not.”  That last complaint is the one I really disagree with.  Ted Leo/Rx has always been vaguely political.  That’s why I liked it.  It wasn’t usually knock-you-over-the-head political, but political like it should be if most political music wasn’t so annoying.  The album might be more strongly political than the past ones, but it’s still in the same vein.

The Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, did inspire a bit more commentary. The big question I’ve been posing to people recently is whether Johnny Marr’s presence on this CD would lead to it being the Smithsiest Record of the New Millennium, a title currently held, according to me, by The Shins. Pitchfork says it’s not very Smithsy, whereas the A.V. Club says his influence will be obvious to Smiths fans, but not for anyone else. I haven’t read any more reviews yet, but I think the Shins are still the champs. (Pitchfork also mentions a pretty noticeable Talking Heads vibe on a couple tracks, which is right on target. This record may be the TalkingHeadsiest record of the year, but I haven’t put much (any) thought into that.)

Anyhow, the funny thing about this is that, though it didn’t get very Smithsy as a result of Marr’s presence throughout the record, the few tracks that feature James Mercer on background vocals are really, really Shinsy. Obviously, I can’t say that the new ModMouse is more Shinsy than the Shins, but those tracks are as close as you’d expect MM to get. The whole record continues the Tom Waits/Nick Cavey growl that first was really featured in Good News, and it’s welcome back. My favorite thing about Modest Mouse, however, has always been the way the guitars sound- the dreamy/icy/shrill/something sounds on their first handful of records. The last album was a pretty big departure guitarwise, and this record continues away from that. It’s still pretty cool though, but whereas before the guitars took on most of the weight for creating cool sounds, now there’s a bunch of violins and horns and other “exotic” instruments. (Exotic in the sense of “exotic for a indie rock band, not in the sense that there’s anything exotic about violins, etc. Perhaps among the least exotic.) The track “Spitting Venom” toward the end of the record does feature some of the same guitar sounds I used to dig. Another notable track is “Little Motel”. It’s probably the least classically MM track on the album. It’s cute though.

Final MM note- I didn’t get the special edition, cause it didn’t have a hologram cover or a flip book. The regular version though has an illustration that’s reminiscent of the Arcade Fire’s Funeral cover, but only barely. So I pulled in another popular indie band. Way to Go, Sutton.

Finally, the David Kilgour- Frozen Orange. So this record was a continuation of my Clean streak started last week. It’s good, pretty soft, slow pop rock. Like the Clean, but older and a tad more polished sounding. It’s solid though, despite having a silly name and kinda dumb album art.  Standout track: Living in Space.

(I just realized that apparently I have the most mainstream tastes in indie rock. Seriously. The Shins, Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse? You could hardly have less street cred. I’m gonna start blogging about my 7″ collection to get my scene point balance in the black.)