Good News for People Who Love Bad News is the fourth studio album by American rock band Modest Mouse, released on April 6, 2004, by Epic Records. Founding member and drummer Jeremiah Green did not perform on this album due to his temporary absence from the band, making it the only Modest Mouse release during his lifetime that he did not appear on.
Good News for People Who Love Bad News was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2005. It was certified 2× platinum by the RIAA in March 2024, Three singles were released from the album: "Float On", "Ocean Breathes Salty", and "The World at Large".
Reception
Good News for People Who Love Bad News was released to widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, indicating "universal acclaim". Spin gave it an A and said it was "Half expansive, burnished radio-rock, half swampy Delta hoodoo-hollerin' that reeks of Brock's Southern sojourn."
Mojo gave the album four stars out of five and said that "Moments of simple, exultant joy are plentiful." The A.V. Club also gave it a favorable review and stated, "The songs still rely on Brock's echoing guitar patterns and Mobius-strip lyrics, delivered in the voice of a harried, hip-hop-inflected square-dance caller, but though the vehicle stays the same, the scenery outside the window changes considerably."
Neumu.net gave it a score of seven out of ten and said, "While the album is not as cohesive a vision, many of its songs are more focused." The Austin Chronicle gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "No bad news here, just more headline-making from an innovative, ever-maturing group of musicians." Yahoo! Music UK gave it a score of seven out of ten and said that "At these transcending moments, 'Good News...' is elevated into excellence. But overall, there is too much Mouse that bores and not enough Mouse that roars." Almost Cool gave it a score of 6.75 out of ten and said that "Probably the biggest complaint could be that the group has tightened up their sound even more on this release, leaving behind even more of the roughshod qualities that made their earlier discs blister with such energy."
Other reviews are very average or mixed: The Guardian gave the album three stars out of five and called it "A useful addition to a genre that prizes brain over brawn." Blender also gave it three stars out of five and said that "[Brock is] adept at wringing out emotion while straddling sentimentality, but too often here, gauche studio affectations make his sap sound plain cheap." Uncut gave it two stars out of five and said that "There are some pleasantly elaborate, wayward songs here... Forays into funk and Tom Waits' scrapyard are cringe-inducing, though."
Track listing
Note
The B-side "I've Got It All (Most)" of "Float On" is included between "Bury Me with It" and "Dance Hall" (Track 7) on the dualdisc edition of the album, and as the last track (Track 17) on the vinyl release. Japanese edition also have this track as track 7 and also "The Good Times Are Killing Me (Alternate Mix Version)" as last track.
Personnel
Modest Mouse
- Isaac Brock – vocals (2–11, 13–16), guitar (3, 4, 6, 7, 10–15), banjo (8, 9, 11), baritone guitar (16), ukulele (5), piano (2), Rhodes (2), Hendx 3000 (10), whistle (2), freak beak (14)
- Eric Judy – bass guitar (3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13–15), acoustic guitar (2, 8, 16), backup vocals (3, 16), pump organ (11, 12), tin whistle (16), percussion (2), mellotron (3)
- Dann Gallucci – guitar (2–4, 6–8, 10–12, 14, 15), keyboards (4, 6, 7, 10), piano (7, 13, 14), backup vocals (3, 16), mellotron (2, 10), drum loops (3, 6), pump organ (16), timpani (2), percussion (2), glockenspiel (7)
- Benjamin Weikel – drums (2–4, 6–8, 10, 11, 13–15)
- Tom Peloso – standup bass (8, 11, 12), fiddle (13)
Additional personnel
- Dennis Herring – accordion on "Bukowski"
- The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band – drums on "The Good Times Are Killing Me", additional drums on "Bury Me With It"
- The Dirty Dozen Brass Band – horns on "Horn Intro" and "This Devil's Workday"
- Milo Chaska Judy – vocals on "Interlude (Milo)"
- The Flaming Lips – additional instrumentation on "The Good Times Are Killing Me"
Art and design
- Art and design – Houston
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col"| Chart (2004)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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! scope="row"| Australian Hitseekers Albums (ARIA)
| 8
|-
! scope="row"| Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
| 52
|-
|-
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2024)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2004)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 64
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2005)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 184
|}