It’s been eight years since the last Modest Mouse album. Once a band at the forefront of the indie-rock movement in the late ‘90s and 2000s, the group distanced themselves from the spotlight for a variety of reasons. Lead Mouse Isaac Brock started a record label and worked on film scores. The band members, ever-evolving, became parents. And at times, Brock himself just wasn’t feeling any sense of urgency, even though their last album, 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – a first in their 20-plus year history.

This...