It definitely was disappointing after an 8 year wait. I still think it's a good album, but it isn't as good as most their other work, which in fairness is a huge undertaking to try and live up to the previous material
I don't think I listened to Strangers more than 3 times, and can't say I feel any desire to go back to it.
I think I've said this here about 10x, but dang it, Issac said they would put out another album as soon as it was legally possible. It's 2017! How much longerrrr??
Strangers is good, not great. The Best Room is one of my very favourite songs of theirs, though. And Shit In Your Cut and The Ground Walks... are so fun live
Strangers is a great record, less cohesive but more consistent than We Were Dead and its singles are some of MM's best. Always bummed to hear the bad rep that album gets. "Pistol" is fucking wild and I'm into it, "Wicked Campaign" is the real stinker I actually prefer it to Science Fiction if we're comparing eight year waits
i love Strangers and think that it is a very solid album and worth the wait. my only real disappointment is that the song "Poison The Well" that they played live, wasn't on it, and that they changed "Lampshades On Fire" too much from the early versions of it to make it into a single. Pistol is weird as fuck and a big risk, I don't know how anyone could say this is a boring or safe album with a song like that, but I love it. "The Tortoise and the Tourist" is one of the coolest things they've done in a while (although the song could have been perfect if it was a little longer, maybe had an additional bridge), along with "The Best Room", "The Ground Walks...", and "Pups To Dust", all top tier Modest Mouse. if anything, the big problem with the album is it doesn't always flow super well, and there isn't a consistent mood like their other releases. but the songs themselves in my opinion are great and they each deserve a lot of attention.
Sugar Boats is so bonkers, probably my favorite on the album. Hard to live up to any 8-year hype (Science Fiction surpassed the hype for me) but Strangers was/is about as good as I could have hoped for after waiting for 8 years. I still listen to it quite frequently. Also, I'm also wondering where the follow-up is considering Isaac did say on multiple occasions that they were going to release a follow-up 'as soon as legally possible'
Strangers is good but was maybe my least favorite when I was getting into this band. Its grown on me I probably like it more than We Were Dead and maybe even Good News but I mean all of this bands music is at least good so
I love their entire discography, but dang, remember all the good stuff they put out when it was just 3 of them?
What was that they played before Satin in a Coffin? The intro with the banjo? A lot of people on YouTube were commenting it was new. I hadn't heard it before.