You likely don’t know whether Danish band Mew’s dreamy prog-rock anthems are your “thing,” but they should be. Mew is an anomaly in today’s world of formulaic chart-topping tracks and general lack of instrumentation, wherein artists produce multiple albums per year to inundate the market. No, Mew hasn’t produced an album since 2009, and that’s one reason to be excited for its return in 2015. It’s been thinking off in the dream-space where its music comes to life.
The group resonates with musicianship and its sound is an amorphous tone that can be Pink Floyd or Sigur Rós airy or as tangibly thick as My Bloody Valentine. One thing that remains constant through the tracks and helps to define the viscosity of Mew’s sound is a knock-out rhythm section led by bassist Johan Wolert and drummer Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen. Through it all, Jonas Bjerre Terkelsbøl’s falsetto vocals and Bo Madsen’s guitar ring out in distinct yet inoffensive tones. The band’s music is an enigma, a procession of dichotomies. At once it is virtuosic, yet alternative; driving and danceable, yet subdued; seriously precise progressive rock and roll, yet also shoegaze. It may be easier to define Mew by what it’s not: banal.
Its first widely circulated album, Frengers (2003), develops the band’s indie rock sound from the first beat of its first track, “I Am Wry? No.” Aided again by pounding, palpable bass and drums, the tracks “156,” “She Came Home For Christmas,” and “Comforting Sounds” are the album’s best. AllMusic referred to the record as “a breathtaking and ambitious epic,” ethereal, emotive, eclectic and “gorgeously melancholic.” To me it’s that and more. Frengers is, in fact, all of their music is, something to listen to intently and soak up. It’s a journey.
Mew’s next release, And The Glass Handed Kites (2005), took its sound deeper and darker. On tracks like “Circuitry of the Wolf,” “Why Are You Looking Grave?,” and “The Zookeeper’s Boy,” the band moves from indie to experimental semi-dark dreaminess. AllMusic called the album “One of the most breathtaking things to come along since the dawn of the dream pop/post-punk genres themselves,” and Drowned in Sound said it’s “a masterpiece of overstated proportions.” The tracks blend into each other peacefully, making the listener wonder, “where am I?” without really caring about the answer.
On Mew’s next album, 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 (2009), the group follow up its sophomore release with a record that’s dancier without forgoing the dreamy and punchy sound it developed. No More Stories… is as inventive as its predecessors. The record’s most notable track, “Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy” is perhaps the best song the group’s ever recorded. It opens with a cacophony of bells, drums, piano, and even a saxophone, but the chorus is nothing less than sublime.
Mew’s official Facebook posted on Jan. 12. that the band is getting “ready for a big announcement” on Monday, Jan. 19. We can only hope it’s an album release date followed by a world tour.