MEW

Let me say- Wow the music and what the heck with the cover! However the ugly as it may appear, the music is contrastly beautiful and poetic . This is one of a great find this year for me. If you love another alternative prog like The Dear Hunter or The Mars Volta, you will sure love this album.

And The Glass Handed Kites is somewhat a darkly alternative rock that well soaked in progressive/post rock sauce-or maybe another way around. There are range of surprise you could find in this album; It all starts with alternative rock to dark post rock and well change into alternative/punk prog rock, disco-ish, neo-prog rock, then back to alternative prog and end the album with post rock. Variety yet seamless.The strong suit of this album is it full of idea. The musicianship may not be that exotic but the way they arrange things, put them together and the idea of music is so nice and beautiful.

Well, I would not classify this album as a masterpiece of Prog. I would say, however, this is essentially a must-try for all of you proggy head. 4 full stars.

4.5 stars.My daughter introduced me to this band about 3 years ago,i guess it was popular with her and her University friends back then.I ended up buying this one and "And The Glass Handed Kites".On the "RYM" site they list it under three genre headings "Dream Pop","Indie Pop" and "Progressive Pop". So you get the picture right ? This is poppy but it is proggy as well. And man is it ever good. In fact this album is one of many i have that i will play simply to lift my spirits.It makes me at least feel something and that's what i love about it. The vocalist reminds me of SIGUR ROS' singer only he's singing in English and in a normal way. Oh and the title "Frengers" is according to the liner notes someone who is not quite friends and not quite strangers.Frengers.Hence the album cover(haha). Man i don't like their album covers though. "Am I Wry? No" is a top three track for me.The drumming is so impressive early on and i like the jangly guitar melodies.Vocals a minute in.This is so uplifting. Great section to end it as the rhythm section becomes prominant. "156" is another top three tune.Spacey winds and strummed guitar to open as reserved vocals come in.It picks up before a minute.So moving. It's really dreamy then it kicks in.Themes are repeated.Great song. "Snow Brigade" has some nice drum/bass work on it as the vocals almost seem to be in the background.They come to the fore on the chorus.Love the chorus. "Symmetry" opens with piano and guest female vocals.Male vocals and acoustic guitar join in.It gets fuller before 2 minutes. "Behind The Drapes" has this heavy rhythm as vocals join in.How can you not feel emotion listening to this? "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years" is catchy with a beat and vocals. "Eight Flew Over,One Was Destroyed" is the other top three track.It builds slowly.My God when the vocals come in i'm so touched.Nice bass before 2 1/2 minutes. "She Came Home For Christmas" opens with some atmosphere and a beat.Higher than normal vocals join in.This is powerful music.Sounds like violin to end it. "She Spider" opens with acoustic guitar and spacey keys.Soft vocals arrive.it kicks in before 1 1/2 minutes.What a contrast! This feels so good.Scorching guitar before 3 minutes. "Comforting Sounds" would have been a good title for the album.It's laid back with vocals to open.Piano joins in.It kicks in before 4 1/2 minutes.Nice.The rest of the way is all instrumental. A special album for me.

So, the thing about Mew: They do excellent, driving, prog-pop. Something (with the exception of some Gentle Giant) I didn't quite believe to be possible. But here it is. Oh yeah, most of their album covers are freaking awful. Particularly "And the Glass Handed Kites".

With "Kites" all the songs segue together, even if there is no earthly reason for them too. It's probably one of the few things I liked on this album as it makes "Kites" seem much longer than it actually is, and for the most part I don't like that--albums should seem shorter than they actually are (because I'm too busy doing air drums and singing along with my awful voice, ideally).

One thing I like about Mew is the musicianship. Not incredibly complicated, but they do what they can to make their songs a little more unusual and skewed and interesting. Check out "The Zookeeper's Boy", it starts off like normal hard rock/alternative rock hybrid until the chorus kicks in and suddenly around a hundred copies of Jonas Bjerre's majestic voice are asking me if I'm his lady. And I don't know what to think. For that song, maybe. It's pretty unexpected and transcendent, although as far as I can tell the lyrics are pretty random. You've got pieces like this:

Tall just like a giraffe You have to climb to find its head But if there's a glitch You're an ostrich You've got your head in the sand

....Right.

Virtually all of the first ten or so songs on this album are great, and then it slows down and becomes a bit of a downer. It's not really a bad thing, but it really kills the momentum built by the previous songs. There are a few good "sleeper" songs in there, songs that you don't quite catch on to until later.

Overall this is a pretty good album. Not great, due to a poor choice of track arrangement, but there are a slew of good poppy rock songs with progressive coloring.

Well can you beat And The Glass Handed Kites...well no, but Mew did try their best to make another album that would make a reviewer (me) happy. God, Mew can just procreate good music can't they. The proved so by this largely titled album (a poem as an album title, great job crazy Swedes.) This album I have to admit isn't as beautiful as And The Glass Handed Kites...but it is alot more happier.The songs are more jaunty and alot less haunting. Still a great album (they made this during the course of a member leaving as well, wow, even with grief they can remain happy).

1. New Terrain - Ok, very weird. Apparently if you play this song backwards, it's another song on the album. Very avant garde and experimental. Great song tho, despite the weirdness.

2. Introducing Palace Players - Good song, cathcy and effective. Happy melodies and great vocals.

3. Beach - Very disco like. Danceable actually.

4. Repeaterbeater - Definelty the most catchiest song on the album. Great chorus and weird intro. Again very disco like. (What is their obssession with disco)

5. Intermezzo 1- Arrpeggios on piano. This was there just to make sure you're still consciousness and not in disco heaven.

6. Silas The Magic Car - My favourite song from this album. I love the lyrics and the title. Very innocent.

7. Cartoons & Macramé Wounds - This actually could have easily been put on And The Glass Handed Kites. Great contrapuntal harmonies and quite haunting (harks back to the earlier album).

8. Hawaii Dream - Great interlude, just saying the album title basically.

9 Hawaii - Happy and disco like. You think this would get annoying, but it just gets better.

10. Vaccine - Nice use of the xylophone. I think this is New Terrain backwards.

11. Tricks Of The Trade - Kraftwerk like keyboards, and OMD like harmonies. Also kind of like a weird Michael Jackson song. Good song none the less.

12. Intermezzo 2 - Another interlude, to be honest, they're just as good as the songs themselves.

13. Sometimes Life Isn't Easy - How to you end of a very happy album. With a sad ballad of course? Yea, werid ending, but still great though. Very Glass Hands.

14. Reprise - The end. Very haunting. Good way to end of an amazing album.

CONCLUSION: Mew have never failed to satisfy me. Even this Aha/Coldplay supergroup being formed shall be amazing, due to Jonas being the lead singer and all. A more lighter turn than Glass Hands was, but still an amazing album. Buy it, the artwork is great as well. If you like Teletubbies, then this album shouldnt fail you (cause Teletubbies rock)

Pure beauty...woops that fell out of my mouth. But I don't care.

Mew hasn't been accepted by Prog Archives for a while now (i checked last week to review 2 of their albums , but I couldn't find them, until now, typical proggers) So I have to review this from memory. This should be quite easy because this is an amazing album.

Mew are the only band that I can say are able to encapture the beauty of Sigur Rós, and put amazing high ranged vocals over them (Jonsí from Sigur does sound like a whale), but Jonas has the most unique voice ever. His amazing canon like contapuntal harmonies sore around your head and don't get out unitl weeks later. And this album is absoultely the most figurative of their back catalogue.

1. Circuitry Of The Wolf - An amazing oddly timed jazz instrumental with oddly timed rhythyms and clangy guitars. Perfect start.

2. Chinaberry Tree - Quite dark and edgy, but with beautiful harmonies and melodies. Jonas really displays some lovely performances.

3. Why Are You Looking Grave - A bit like Chinaberry Tree, quite dark and edgy. J Mascis' vocals are very gravey (pun on the title :)) make the song alot more intresting (and it already is too intresting). The chorus is beautiful and catchy.

4. Fox Cub - A very beautiful interlude. Very soft and gentle.

5. Apocalypso - Incredibly addictive and great vocals. Another great song.

6. Special - Proabbly the most catchiest song on the album. Great harmonies and an amazing chorus.

7. The Zookeeper's Boy - If not one of, then defienetly the most beautiful song ever made. Jonas siren like chant is incredibly soul moving. It makes me cry every time I hear it. The amazing contrapuntal chorus is amazing and the amazing harmonies in the verses and the links and the intro is incredibly effective. One of the best songs ever made by humans.

8. The Dark Design - Amazing mellotron intro. Very dark and mysterious. One of Jonas most laid back songs for pitch.

9. Saviours Of Jazz Ballet (Fear Me, December) - Amazing song, with great hypnotic vocals. The instrumental at the end is amazing and very effective.

10. An Envoy To The Open Fields - The intro is very Duke Special. Another song with J. Mascis on it. This is probabbly one of the most happiest songs on the album. It very cheery.

11. Small Ambulance - Just a short instrumental. Reminds me of music from and advert.

12. The Seething Rain Weeps For You (Uda Pruda) - Very Klaxons like intro. Great song with great jaunty moments. The song ends with a Sigur Rós inspired xylophone excerpt.

13. White Lips Kissed - Another beautiful song. Very sad and haunting. Very creepy as well. Great melody throughout.

14. Louise Louisa - Cathcy hooks, and great melodies. The end is incredibly hauntingand very soothing.

CONCLUSION: Definitly one of the best albums ever made in my opinion. There is nothing boring about it, every song is as good as the other, the links between the songs are enjoyable. The lyrics are weird and don't seem to make sense, but it's more about trying to make the listener think up his own story. Very beautiful ideas presented and great catchy hooks. Mew are the equivalent of a hybrid between The Flaming Lips & Sigur Rós (in my opinion)... so what's there to loose. Go out and find this album and buy it, it's worth every penny.

mew is obviously a very artistic band, very profound i would say, and this album( some would so boldly call a masterpiece) i would have to say is certainly going in the direction, it is very nourishing in terms of complexity and being catchy, very mature writing. the fact that it is all strung together to sound like 1 very long song is interesting because its not a concept album, it flows from a bit agressive to cute to dancy and many other adjectives. but who am i to tell you what this album is all about. listen to it, it may change your life, or not. either way, i think adleast the young progheads should have 1 mew album in their collection. they are certainly brilliant arnt they?

I must admit that I was surprised to see that Mew was added to Prog Archives a few days ago. I checked and there was apparently a thread on the band, in which some of the Crossover team approved them after hearing their new album. Or at least that's what I gathered from reading it. I was slightly surprised due to the fact that I don't think Mew is really overtly prog in any way (I tend to think of them as shoegaze, experimental rock, or indie rock), but Crossover seems the best place for them on PA.

I actually heard of Mew a few months ago, when a friend of mine showed me a few of the songs from "And the Glass Handed Kites" on YouTube, saying I might like the band. I did enjoy the songs quite a bit, so I quickly snatched up this album. And even though it's taken some time to sink in, I'm certainly glad I did. The music has some very obvious shoegaze and alternative rock influences with a bit of post-rock even, and the tracks are a mix of pop and some fairly experimental material. One thing that would definitely draw progressive rock fans to this album though is the fact that it is more or less a song cycle. While the album is indeed divided up into 14 tracks, there is no break in between each of the tracks, so each one flows right into the next one, creating what is more or less one long 54 minute song. Mew tends to lie on the end of shoegaze that is the more melodic and tends to have lots of lush sounds to it. There are some effects and guitar feedback from time to time, but that is not what this band is about. The main reason I like this album so much is the atmospheres. They are some of the most beautiful atmospheres I have heard in modern rock music. I don't think I can really exaggerate my feelings towards them, but they must certainly be heard to be believed. And Jonas Bjerre's high-pitched vocals really help add to that atmosphere.

I will try to avoid making the comparisons I'm sure many people on this site will make about Mew. Yes, I know many will say they hear some Muse and Porcupine Tree in Mew's sound, but I will leave it to others to make those comparisons. I can say that I would recommend "And the Glass Handed Kites", as well as any other Mew album, to fans of both those bands, I could also make similar recommendations to fans of bands such as Oceansize and Radiohead too though. While I'm sure some would debate whether or not Mew is progressive rock, they probably are more so in the spirit rather than the sound, as are most modern prog bands. I've wavered for several months between 4 and 5 stars on this album, but I really think giving it a 4 would be too low. So 5 stars it is, and this may go down as one of my favorite albums of the 2000s.

Mew is a Danish art rock band formed in 1995. 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 is either their fifth or their seventh album (it depends on whether you want to count the re-releases with bonus tracks). After the magnificent ...And the Glass Handed Kites, this album was highly anticipated and the video-blog on the band's website only added to the hype. Has Mew continued in the ambitious, proggy direction taken by their previous masterpiece?

The answer is: partly. No More Stories is more sophisticated and diverse than Frengers (2003) but doesn't have the ambitious content of ...And the Glass Handed Kites, on which every song flowed into the next, full of instrumentals and powerful compositions. If ...And the Glass Handed Kites, with its dark theme of fear and seclusion, is like winter, then No More Stories is like summer: full of upbeat songs and overall a happier atmosphere. No More Stories consists of both simple and straightforward songs and more complex ones with tempo changes and some very interesting ideas. The first track, for example, will reveal a bonus track (with, albeit nonsensical, lyrics!) when played backwards!

This album will probably fail to please hardcore prog fetishists who disregard anything that is catchy or lacks mellotrons, keyboard solos and jazzy improvisations, but it will be very enjoyable for listeners of bands like Muse and Porcupine Tree. The shoegazy vocals, the catchy and awkward rhythms, the tempo changes, the poetic and creative lyrics: there's a lot to like about this album. Mew hasn't moved forward since ...And the Glass Handed Kites, but this album is finely crafted, made with a lot of love and care and filled with ideas and potential.

No More Stories is not an essential album, nor is it particularly amazing. It's simply lovely, unpretentious, playful music that anyone with an open mind will be instantly taken by.

It's hard not to gush about Frengers. I was hooked from the first spin and there's never a time I can't come back to such a consistently good tracklist.

Frengers is the second Mew album I got my hands on. I wasn't completely enthralled with Triumph for Man but there were some excellent tunes there so I gave them a second chance. Goodness, am I thankful I did. Frengers is the definitive Mew experience and after hearing everything up to their recent 2009 No More Stories I can say without hesitation that my statement still stands.

I would compare Mew to another band, but I honestly can't think of anyone that sounds similar. They are in a genre of their own. A bit shoegazey and a bit spacey, but hard to define. In a recent interview, Bo mentioned that they just make pop, but in a slightly different way. I guess that's good enough.

There isn't a moment of displeasure from the second you start the album. The album takes a very small dip with Symmetry leaving you a little disappointed after the quality of the first three tracks. It sure does pick back up though, with each song besting the last all leading up to the bombastic finale Comforting Sounds, a song that deserves special mention.

Any fan of Mew should claim Comforting Sounds to be their best song. Anything else is wrong, period. Everything good about Mew is epitomized in the most worthwhile 9 minutes of music. A slow, brooding start showcasing Jonas' strangely beautiful, high-pitched voice leads you in. Four minutes later it blasts you in the face with a loud, emotional charge as Jonas' lyrics turn to unintelligible howls that soar across the music. A shattering finale, and then it ends. You're left in awe. A supreme finish to an excellent album.

It's hard for me to truly pick my absolute favorite album, but Frengers is a clear contender. This is probably the closest music can get to perfection.