NO MORE STORIES ARE TOLD TODAY I'M SORRY THEY WASHED AWAY NO MORE STORIES THE WORLD IS GREY I'M TIRED LET'S WASH AWAY

One of the things I've always liked about Mew was their ability to combine heaviness with melancholy and artiness which created a very interesting dynamism. "Frengers" and "And the Glass Handed Kites" were teeming with overdriven hard, heavy and catchy guitar riffs which stood in great contrast with the softer and more fragile parts. I think this dynamism is missing from "No More Stories..." and I suspect that it disappeared when Johan Wohlert left the band (interestingly, the latest album, "Black Luck" by his present band, The Storm, seems to contain all the heaviness that's lacking from "No More Stories..."). "No More Stories..." also seem more stripped down terms of production, thus being slightly reminiscent of the minimalistic "A Triumph for Man".

And there are a number of weak tracks on this album - unlike both "Frengers" and "An the Glass Handed Kites". "New Terrain" which is played backwards seems to pretentious and a waste of time to listen too, while "Silas The Magic Car" is rather bland, and "Tricks of the Trade" sounds like really bad early 80s synth-electro pop.

That being said, "No More Stories..." is still a very fine album with lost of good tunes on it. I especially like "Introducing Palace Players", primarily due to the way Silas Graae uses his hi-hat, and "Vaccine" is strangely drawing. "Beach" is a straightforward pop/rock song with a certain 90s quality to it and reminds me a bit of the three pop songs on "Half the World is Watching Me", while "Repeaterbeater" is reminiscent of "And the Glass Handed Kites" in athmosphere.

There are also several progressive moments on this album. "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds", one of the most progressive tracks on the album, contains a number of interesting time signature changes, and also changes character completely after around two minutes. "Hawaii Dream/Hawaii" are also quite progressive with their use of calypso-like instrunmentation that dominates the first half of the song, which suddenly changes into a bombastic rock song, containing several tricky time signatures. "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" is also a quite progressive offering both Genesis-like drama, simplicity, ambience, poppiness and even jazzy elements.

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