Remember when you heard ‘Frengers’ for the first time, Jonas Bjerre’s vocal ghosting in to a velveteen backdrop of otherworldly panorama? Beautiful weren’t it?
Well, it’s wonderfully much the same on their fifth studio album ‘No More Stories’; Mew’s innate ability to permeate another full length with soaring guitar bravura is in heady health. Eternally blessed with Scandinavian pop sensibility, you’re soon dropped into a groundswell of emotive, shoegaze that’ll have your heart punch through its ribcage. Weighing in at lengthy 14 tracks, and for all its dream-like delicacy, it’s an album that has real pace and purpose.
Characterised by arresting tracks like ‘Cartoons and Macrame Wounds’ that tentatively, gorgeously stop you in your tracks, it’s the angular jerk of ‘Introducing Palace Players’ that sets a new, invigorating marker, underscoring ‘No More Stories’ as an elegant contender.
8/10
Words by Reef Younis
