Modest Mouse Announce New Album ‘An Eraser And A Maze’

The American rock outfit has also shared the album’s first single, ‘Picking Dragon's Pockets’.

Image Robin Laananen

Five years on since the release of their last album The Golden Casket, Modest Mouse return with their eighth studio album, An Eraser and a Maze.

The band’s first record on Glacial Pace Recordings after two decades on the Epic Records roster, An Eraser and a Maze is out Friday 5 June and was produced by Modest Mouse vocalist Isaac Brock with additional production by Jackknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Suzy Shinn (Weezer, panic at the disco) and Justin Raisin (Charli xcx, Kim Gordon, Lil Yachty). 

Originally envisioned as a six-song EP Brock planned to release under his side project, Ugly Casanova, the recordings grew into a full-fledged 12 track album.

Speaking on the making of An Eraser and a Maze, Brock says, “For this one, I turned off my filter and just let it all happen. Even though every goddamn musician says that when they put out a record. I mean, go ahead and listen to the three-minute mark of any interview between a musician and Terry Gross…”

“Thoughts, emotions, feelings, all that stuff … you're like the soup, and it’s not always easy to pick out the ingredients. I don't dwell on things much. I don't grieve much. I'm not sure I'm a person. I feel like I should have more feelings than I do. But then, you know, I'll sing stuff. And I'm like, Oh, there it is. Oh — it's in there.”

Modest Mouse have also shared the album’s opening track, ‘Picking Dragon’s Pockets’. It’s exactly what you want from a Modest Mouse song, with punishing percussion and an anthemic chorus you’ll be singing along with in no time.

READ MORE: Josh Pyke Drops New Single ‘Under the Escarpment’

Modest Mouse formed in Portland in 1993 and acquired a cult following after the release of their critically acclaimed albums The Lonesome Crowded West (1997) and The Moon & Antarctica (2000).

It wasn’t until 2004’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which included the hit singles ‘Float On’ and ‘Ocean Breathes Salty’, that Modest Mouse crossed over into the mainstream.

The band have released seven studio albums, counted the legendary Johnny Marr as a member for three years and toured with everyone from Weezer and Pixies to The Cribs and The Flaming Lips.

‘Picking Dragon’s Pockets’ by Modest Mouse is out now. Listen here. An Eraser and a Maze is out Friday 5 June via Glacial Pace Recordings. Pre-save here. Check out the album artwork and tracklist below.

An Eraser and a Maze

1. Picking Dragon’s Pockets 

2. Remember Yourself 

3. Life’s A Dream 

4. Third Side Of The Moon 

5. Dogbed in Heaven/Give It A Skeleton 

6. Interlude 

7. I Can’t Talk Right Now 

8. Speak ‘N Spell (Or Not) 

9. Rotten Fruit (feat. Justin Raisin) 

10. Knocked Down By Waves 

11. Absolutely Necessary Never 

12. Song About Nothing 

13. Stoner Party 

14. Look How Far 

15. Impossible Somedays 

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