Modest Mouse - Float On b/w I've Got it All (Most)

Sometimes a song can be so good that I feel the need to keep it from myself until it blows over. Having learned my lesson from "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers, I fled from any situation in which "Float On" played. I kept the radio off (a good suggestion regardless of intent), I stayed out of bowling alleys, I didn't play this single, and took many other extreme steps to keep myself from hearing it too often. I knew "Float On" was a hit and I didn't want to gorge myself on it and be unable to enjoy it later. I took the same tactic with "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley and "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age. Now all the payolas pumped into those songs have played out and I can listen to them at my leisure. Take that Clear Channel!

Anyway, "Float On" is a great song that sounds like nothing in the Modest Mouse catalog before it. I know the Modest Mouse catalog because when I was in college I spent a decent amount of time looking for music that was borderline unlistenable because I wanted to be cool. Modest Mouse isn't unlistenable, but it was unlikeable as far as my roommates were concerned. It's just a great pop song with a driving beat and lyrics that might as well be rama-lama-ding-dong for how much I care about what they mean.

The b-side to "Float On" is more of the Modest Mouse I know. It's quirky, offbeat, full of stops and starts, and ultimately doesn't go anywhere. I prefer the a-side, but the b-side makes me feel smarter. Maybe that's why so much of college rock is angular and hard to enjoy. You feel smarter if you can enjoy music that openly defies you.