“We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” is Modest Mouse’s fifth studio release. It was released in 2007 and produced by Dennis Herring (The Hives, Counting Crows). It is the first album they released since the addition of guitarist Johnny Marr (Smiths). The singles on this album are “Dashboard”, “Missed the Boat”, and “Little Motel”. Although the album debuted at number one in the billboard 200, no singles actually topped the charts. James Mercer of “The Shins” sings back up vocals to the songs “We’ve Got Everything”, “Missed the Boat” and “Florida”.
The album has the feel of a nautical carnival (the album title is just the tip of the iceberg-Titanic pun not intended). Lead singer Isaac Brock is as intense as ever with his crazy-circus-ringmaster’s vocals. The album starts with the song “March into the Sea” were you instantly get the feeling that you are on a rickety old tugboat heading straight into troubled waters. It has great ups and downs and sways like the waves of the ocean. The second song and album single “Dashboard” has a great tempo and has a very positive message. “Fire it Up” is more chilled out and is more of a sailboat than a tugboat. In “Florida”, you find yourself still cruising but Brock turns it up a notch. The idea is you’re driving away from it all until you reach Florida, the end of the line, and yet somehow it doesn’t seem “far enough”.
“Parting of the Sensory” is really the hidden pearl of this album. The song analyses mortality and tells of how one day we will all part with our sensory and that “someday you will die and somehow something’s gonna steal your carbon”. “Missed the Boat” is yet another treasure waiting to be found. In fact, the whole album is really a treasure just waiting to be found by the musical treasure hunters that would, for example, be reading this article in search of it. “We Were Dead…” is truly a great album and a shining example of what great Indie Rock is all about.
