Remember Yourself
The new Modest Mouse album is a good listen. Once you get over that they’ll never sound like the 90’s, rough around the edges, and low budget masterpieces you can enjoy this album.
I have criticisms on some songs except for one I think is absolutely perfect. “Remember Yourself” is the only song on this album that’s not filled with many instruments and loud noises, it’s just a nice acoustic guitar song. What really shines in this song though is Isaac Brock’s lyricism. I consider frontman Isaac Brock to be a top 5 lyricists, and this song proves my point so well. The chorus says “Sometime I’ll be dead and gone/Sooner than I hope but I hope I’m wrong/Well, remember this when I’m gone/Remember yourself not me.” This is some of the most thought provoking lyrics I’ve heard and this is why Isaac Brock’s a genius
I got into Modest Mouse shortly after my Dad passed away and connected to songs like “Ocean Breathes Salty” which has similar themes and lyrics of death and grief: “Your body may be gone I’m gonna carry you in/In my head, in my heart, and my soul/And maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll both grow old/Well I don’t know, I don’t know/ I don’t know I hope so”. But this song now I think “Remember Yourself” on the same level of thought provoking, and I’d like to think my dad agrees with the message of this song, “don’t remember me, remember to take care of yourself”
Even if you don’t plan on listening to this album, listen to this song, it’s the perfect encapsulation of Isaac Brock’s genius mind.