Modest Mouse Confirm Details For First Album In Eight Years

Notoriously slow-moving indie-rock legends Modest Mouse have finally cemented the release date and title of their long-awaited sixth full-length album, eight years after last studio LP We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

In a package sent to select fans over the weekend, the band revealed the album's title would be Strangers To Ourselves, and it is scheduled for release internationally on Tuesday 3 Mar, 2015. The package came with a test pressing of recently unveiled new single Lampshades On Fire — a staple of the band's live set since at least 2011 — alongside the revealing notice, while a cryptic photo post on Modest Mouse's freshly minted Instagram account has been taken by many commentators to be a likely preview of the single's cover art, if not the full album's.

Although Strangers To Ourselves is the band's first new album since 2007, they did release an EP, No One's First And You're Next, back in 2009; there have also been collaborative tracks recorded with OutKast's Big Boi sitting around in the back halls since 2011 that are yet to see the light of day, though it remains unclear whether they will simply be included on Strangers To Ourselves' track list when it finally hits stores.

You can listen to a (decent-quality) live recording of Lampshades On Fire below. The single is due for official release internationally tomorrow, 16 Dec.