Mew "Visuals" (2017)

digipack
cover

Visuals
release date: Apr. 28, 2017
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Mew
label: PIAS - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Nothingness and No Regrets" - 2. "The Wake of Your Life" (live) - 3. "Candy Pieces All Smeared Out" - 4. "In a Better Place" - 6. "Learn Our Crystals" - 9. "85 Videos" (4 / 5) - 11. "Carry Me to Safety"
[ album sampler ]

7th studio album by Mew, the band's first after guitarist and founding member Bo Madsen left the band, which is once again reduced to a trio.
The album contains a refreshing and straightforward tone and seems free of strong thoughts on form over matter. There's a continued lightness, which also was found on the predecessor from 2015. The loss of Bo Madsen is there - the guitar has not been put in the hands of a substitute, although Mads Wegner is credited for additional guitar. instead keyboards play a bigger part on this, which is a small downside.
I find it very much on par with the fine + - from 2015 despite not having the obvious top quality singles. Tracks #2 and #9 are clearly the best, but I also find that others win in the longer run, so give it time and more than a few spins.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, PopMatters 4 / 5 stars ]

official cover

Mew "+ -" (2015)

+ -
release date: Apr. 27, 2015
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Michael Beinhorn & Mew
label: Play It Again Sam - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Satellites" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Witness" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Night Believer" (3,5 / 5) - 4. "Making Friends" - 5. "Clinging to a Bad Dream" - 6. "My Complications" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Water Slides" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Interview the Girls" (3,5 / 5) - 9. "Rows" (3,5 / 5) - 10. "Cross the River on Your Own"
[ live on KEXP ]

6th studio album by Mew is a fine return to more dream pop founded compositions. Founding member bassist Johan Wohlert has now rejoined the band. Once again the band has teamed up with Michael Beinhorn and the result is a more focused album with much less focus on progressive and / or experimental. "My Complications" feature Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack making it sound like a perfect blend of the two bands. Instead of using the same formula as on the band's last two albums, this is both a tighter recipe compared to the band's 2010 album but it's also lighter than the heavy (Beinhorn) production sound on the 2005 release. The first single track "Satellites" is a glorious and typical Mew composition in the most positive sense. In fact, I find that it's among the band's top 3 albums. It's one of the top 10 albums of 2015, imho.
After the release of the album founding member and guitarist of the band, Bo Madsen left Mew.
[ allmusic.com, musicOMH 4 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Mew "No More Stories Are Told Today..." (2009)

No More Stories Are Told Today...
release date: Aug. 19, 2009
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Rich Costey, Mew
label: Evil Office / Columbia - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Introducing Palace Players" (4 / 5) - 3. "Beach" - 4. "Repeaterbeater" - 13. "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy"

5th studio album by Mew with the full tile 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 [sic] continues the style introduced on the band's previous album. There's a distinct progressive rock element to it, which sometimes works fine, and at other times seems too formative. It's also experimental in the way the band challenges itself with instrumental skills, which require the full attention of the listener. Given time and attention, it's more interesting and daring than the band's 2005 album, but then it's also a release without great pop tunes like "Apocalypso", "Special", and "The Zookeeper's Boy". In that way No More Stories... is the band's boldest prog. rock-styled and experimental, say: daring album to date.
Not bad, not bad, and then: not really great.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars]

Mew "No More Stories EP" (2009)

No More Stories EP
release date: Jun. 29, 2009
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

Track highlights: 1. "Introducing Palace Players" (4 / 5) - 2. "Repeaterbeater"

5-track ep by Mew consisting of two tracks from the forthcoming 5th studio album. This is the band's first release after being reduced to a trio. These two tracks proof the band's continued mix of alt. rock, dream pop, and some elements from progressive rock. The first two tracks are quite interesting but the rest seems like mere fillers. It didn't really make me want to rush out to purchase the new album. I think, the band had come to a stand still, and I mostly just miss the simplicity of Frengers.

Mew "And the Glass Handed Kites" (2005)

And the Glass Handed Kites
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 ]

Mew "Frengers" (2003)

Frengers
release date: Jun. 16, 2003
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,95]
producer: Rich Costey
label: Sony BMG - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Am I Wry? No" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "156" - 3. "Snow Brigade" (4 / 5) - 4. "Symmetry" - 5. "Behind the Drapes" - 6. "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years" - 7. "Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed" - 8. "She Came Home for Christmas" (4 / 5) - 9. "She Spider" (5 / 5) - 10. "Comforting Sounds" (4 / 5)

3rd studio album by Mew and the first to have an original international release, which makes it the band's international debut. Six of the tracks are remakes of tracks either issued on the debut album (1 track) or on the band's follow-up album Half the World Is Watching Me (2000). Track #8 is the only one from the debut, but like the other remakes, track #1, #2, #4, #6, and #10, these versions are better produced, or at least with a different aim in sound. Georgian 14 year-old Becky Jarrett features on track 4, and Swedish pop vocalist Stina Nordenstam features on track #6. Only four tracks are new but then again: the tracks on this album are all unique, and having only issued the first two albums in very limited numbers this album is a necessity.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Uncut 4 / 5, Sputnikmusic 5 / 5 stars ]

Mew "Half The World Is Watching Me" (2000)

Half The World Is Watching Me
release date: May 4, 2000
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Mew, Morten Sidenius and Flemming Rasmussen
label: Evil Office - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 0. "Ending" - 1. "Am I Wry? No" (4 / 5) - 2. "Mica" - 3. "Saliva" - 4. "King Christian" - 5. "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years" - 6. "156" - 7. "Symmetry" - 8. "Comforting Sounds"

2nd studio album by Mew issued on the band's own label and originally released in only about 5000 copies. Swedish singer Stina Nordenstam features on track #5, Georgian Becky Jarrett on #7, and the producer of the debut album, Damon Tutunjian sings rap on "King Christian".

The music is generally very interesting, however, being familiar with Frengers (2003) as the first Mew album, the first two albums mostly just generate great 'demos' to that. Frengers is then nothing more than an upgraded compilation, encompassing this album and the debut, A Triumph for Man (1997). What is striking about this, the band's second effort, is really the fine raw material, and alas, also the somewhat narrow production sound, although, the album comes out as slightly bettering the debut. Tracks like "Mica", "Saliva", and "King Christian" could easily have been included on Frengers, and in the hands of producer Rich Costey, only imagination can perceive how great these songs would have shone alongside the other tracks from the first two albums.

[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6 stars ]

Mew "A Triumph for Man" (1997)

A Triumph for Man [debut]
release date: Apr. 1, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]
producer: Damon Tutunjian; Mew (co-producer)
label: Exlibris / Evil Office - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Wheels Over Me" - 3. "Wherever" - 4. "Panda" - 7. "No Shadow Kick" - 9. "She Came Home for Christmas" - 11. "I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (For You)" - 13. "Web" - 14. "Coffee Break"

Studio album debut by Mew originally released on the small Danish label Exlibris Musik in only 2000 copies. The album was reissued as a 2-disc version (with a bonus disc containing demo and alternate recordings) in 2006 by Evil Office, the band's own sub-label of Sony BMG. Unfortunately, I never came across the album back then, but I knew of the band around '98, alas without ever paying it much attention. The reissue album contains a bonus disc with demo and alternate takes. Mew formed in 1994 as a quartet consisting of Jonas Bjerre on lead vocals, Bo Madsen on guitar, Johan Wohlert on bass, and with Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen on drums.

The music is an original mix of indie pop, dream pop, shoegaze, and noise pop with inspirational sources from My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, and Swirlies [album producer Damon Tutunjian is part of this band]. The album has delicate blue-eyed pop-moments and fine progressive pop / art pop ideas - almost post rock elements, only I find that the album mostly functions in a sense of making sketching to something... more, but definitely full of sheer talent.

[ Sputnikmusic 4,5 / 5 stars ]