release date: Sep. 26, 2005
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Michael Beinhorn
label: Sony BMG - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 5. "Apocalypso" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Special" (4 / 5) - 7. "The Zookeeper's Boy" (4,5 / 5)
4th studio album by Mew is a move into a more progressive style with a heavier sound thanks to alt. rock producer Michael Bienhorn. The compositions has a clear post-rock style, which puts the band aside Sigur Rós more than ever with this album. All tracks are woven together leaving no clear gaps in between the single compositions.
I kind of like the album, although, I also find it a bit on the pretentious side. One cannot put a finger on their musical skills - it simply just appears too mind-constructed in the sense that not all tracks feel like part of a progression, so that the overall sensation of an album with one long take partly fails leaving that idea as a mere construction per se - form over matter.
Bassist Johan Wohlert left the band after the release to focus on his family, although he would later rejoin the band prior to the band's fifth album "+ -" (2015).
The album cover has been criticized for being one of the worst covers in 2005, and to that I consent.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Drowned in Sound 4,5 / 5 stars ]
