| Building Nothing Out of Something | |
| Type: | compilation |
| Artist: | Modest Mouse |
| Cover: | MMBuildingNothingOutOfSomething.jpg |
| Released: | January 18, 2000 |
| Recorded: | 1995–1998 |
| Genre: | Indie rock |
| Length: | 55:24 |
| Label: | Up |
| Producer: | Calvin Johnson |
| Prev Title: | Night on the Sun |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | The Moon & Antarctica |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
Building Nothing Out of Something is a compilation album released in January 2000 by American indie rock band Modest Mouse, comprising non-album tracks from various points in the band's career. All songs were originally released from 1996 to 1998. In 2015, Brock's Glacial Pace re-released the album for CD and Vinyl (with some unmarked random copies containing red vinyl rather than black).
The songs on this album were recorded between 1995 and 1998, composing of A and B sides from singles, three tracks from Interstate 8, and one song from the vinyl version of The Lonesome Crowded West.
The track "Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night) contains a melody from Sleep Walk, a 1959 instrumental song by American Rock & Roll duo Santo and Johnny. The song contains lyrics, written by Isaac Brock.
In a review for Pitchfork, Brent Dicrescenzo gives the album an 8.9 out of 10. In the review, he says "Though Building Nothing Out of Something merely compiles old singles and rarities, it might be the best Modest Mouse release for newcomers' initiation, as well as instant gratification for long time fans. This batch of songs is easily their most varied. "Never Ending Math Equation" tick-tocks to a screeching turntable crescendo. "Medication" floats a slow, crystalline guitar line over muted field recordings of traffic, foghorns, and railroad bells before trotting into an acoustic coda with blithe organs. The most beautiful near-seven minutes of Modest Mouse's career rumbles throughout "Workin' on Leavin' the Livin'"-- a psychedelic testimonial to the afterlife. "Sleepwalkin'" mines the 1950s ballad of the same name, but sets the affair in an underwater chamber of whale-call guitars and aching melodies. And a suitable meltdown climaxes in the closer, "Other People's Lives," when Brock treats his guitar like solder. [1]