Mew : 'No More Stories'
Released: 24th August 2009
Label: Columbia
What is it about Scandinavia that manages to churn out such good music? Maybe we just don't get shown the shit, but it's uncanny. Think Those Dancing Days, Shout Out Louds, Sigur Ros, Kissaway Trail, I'm From Barcelona, I could go on. Mew are another, and their latest offering, No More Stories is huge in every sense.
Album number five from the Danes sees them perfect epic soundscapes that are as big and as sparse as phonically possible. Complex doesn't do it justice, 'Hawaii Dream' erupts from nowhere with vocoder vocals, reverb drenched aah-aahs and even a glock into a joyous symphony. There's an expectancy for each song to explode into our ears, and it never disappoints.
The size of sound doesn't swamp everything, the melodies always evolve despite mainly taking a backseat. 'Silas The Magic Car' is imperious, the trickling drums and bassy sounding guitar create the perfect tone for the two vocal line to wander around. The whispering vocodered main line is impossible to ignore, it's beguiling.
No More Stories is as unpredictable as it is stunning, bringing all kinds of eclectic feels into the mix. They find the electronica Maps were searching for on 'New Terrain'; give funk a reworking on 'Introducing Palace Players'; massive power-pop on 'Cartoons And Macrame Wounds' and come close to matching Sigur Ros at times. At times it does end up falling down eighties tinged routes and tails off, but you can forgive it because there rest is so damn good.
Words: Jack Phillips
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