Mew Albums (4)
'No More Stories Are Told Today Sorry...'
Release Date 8/18/2009
Tracks 14
Label Columbia/DMZ
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What The Critics Say
Mew's fifth full-length offering presents audiences with another meticulously crafted, highly melodic, and maddeningly esoteric collection of volatile Danish indie rock that replaces the dusky uncertainty of 2005's And the Glass Handed Kites with a sunnier disposition that owes more to Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips than it does the icy, audio cave paintings of Sigur Rós. From the opening notes of "New Terrain" (which if played backwards reveals an entirely new song called "Nervous") through the Yes-inspired closer, "Reprise," Mew have crafted their most alluring collection of songs to date. While a handful of tracks ("Beach," "Tricks of the Trade") do veer into more commercial territory, it's the epic scope of cuts like "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds," "Hawaii," "Silas the Magic Car," and "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" -- the latter two complete with a children's choir -- that provides listeners with enough sustenance to survive through to the next album. Despite its ominous (and lofty) title, 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 a dreamy blend of circular melodies and odd time signatures that requires multiple listens (this is par for the course with any Mew album) and a significant amount of cinematic stamina from the listener, and though it may not appeal to the masses, its mass is definitely appealing. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
'Triumph for Man'
Release Date 1/23/2007
Tracks 23
Label Sony / BMG Import
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'And the Glass Handed Kites'
Release Date 1/1/2005
Tracks 14
Label Sony BMG
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Danish quartet Mew's dense and occasionally difficult And the Glass Handed Kites is old-fashioned only in the sense that it's meant to be eaten in a single sitting. This is not a single-driven record -- though "Special," with its bouncy, moody chorus and octave vocal delivery, sounds like an emission from a time machine parked dead center within the heydays of early-'90s alternative rock -- rather, it's a single organism. Kites takes the wisdom and volatility of the Delgados ("Chinaberry Tree"), the sonic scope of Sigur Rós ("White Lips Kissed"), and the angular guitar attack of early Ride and Dinosaur Jr. ("Circuitry of the Wolf") and melds them all into a cathartic post-rock epic that's so electrifying and unpredictable that it's almost impossible to take in with one or two listens. Fans of OK Computer-era Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, and Disintegration-era Cure will find And the Glass Handed Kites one of the most breathtaking things to come along since the dawn of the dream pop/post-punk genres themselves. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
