As I’m typing this, it’s currently the 18th of January 2023 – which shows you just how much in advance I do these things – and just getting to almost three weeks after the passing of Modest Mouse drummer Jeremiah Green. That was some awful news to wake up to on New Year’s Day. It had only been made public that he had been diagnosed with stage IV cancer just a few days before, but I don’t think anyone could have expected things to go as they did, and so quickly too. It’s still sad in January, and now in March too – maybe in between the two months some update on Modest Mouse will happen. Will just have to wait and see.

It took me the longest time to listen to the band’s Moon & Antarctica in full and in good quality because, even though its Wikipedia page showed just how well-rated it was by critics, it wasn’t anywhere on streaming services for whatever reason. That was until December 2018 when it was suddenly on Spotify. Then I had to see what it was all about. It was an instant add to my personal library. Felt like an album I’d become so familiar with, even though it was my first time hearing the thing. ‘Paper Thin Walls’ is the 11th track on The Moon & Antarctica and was one of those on there that struck an immediate chord with me. Once that opening guitar lick kicked in, I think it was pretty much a guarantee, and what followed was an added bonus.

From what I’ve gathered in the four-and-a-bit years I’ve been listening to the song, ‘Paper Thin…’ is this musically upbeat track about a disturbing lack of privacy and a general sense of disappointment with things going on in the world, feelings and situations that usually come along with being in a band and having an expectation to please people wherever you go. Sounds like a let down in writing, but with the repetitive melody and call-and-response aspect between the vocals and the instruments during the verses, everything sounds a lot more lively and energetic than you would expect. I think that weariness shows more in the choruses, or is it a bridge – I’m not sure, in which things slow down a peg and Isaac Brock becomes a bit more introspective. But once that’s over, it’s a case of second verse, same as the first, and the energy props up again. Though it wasn’t until the band’s next album that something of mainstream success would come their way, I think ‘Paper Thin Walls’ could be considered an example of what was to come, just due to its sheer accessibility while still maintaining that unique Modest Mouse essence.