No More Stories [CD]

Once you have condensed the somewhat off putting title to simply 'No More Stories' then you can start listening to what Mew have to say this time around, and it really is very good indeed. Each of Mew's albums has its own character and this one is no different. Debut 'A Triumph for Man' is a striding and confident album filled with accessible yet innovative tracks. Follow up 'Half the World is Watching Me' is a more of a straight out rock album which laid the building blocks for third album 'Frengers' which is joyously anthemic and almost poppy at moments. Fourth album '...and the Glass Handed Kites' is a master stroke with an almost consistent flow pitching you from epic highs like 'Zookeeper's Boy', 'Saviours of Jazz Ballet' and 'An Envoy to the Open Fields' to the crunching devastation of 'Apocolypso'.

So what does this fifth album do different. It is a strangely broken album. Opening track 'New Terrain' almost sounds like it is being played backwards with synths that cut short like the passing of a police car siren. It gives the track the feeling that it is constantly trying to catch up with itself and yet at the end it opens into a gently humming organ part that rolls straight into the broken guitars of 'Introducing Palace Players'. This track bounces like the drunken dance at the end of a long night. It is exhilarating though slightly uncoordinated. 'Beach' chimes and jumps into the sunshine and takes you along for the ride like all good pop songs should.

Then we get a little more serious. 'Repeaterbeater' is a plodding widescreen rock song. By this point in the album the quality is really starting to shine through, and this is proven fantastically by 'Silas the Magical Car'. This track tinkles into your ears and warms you from the inside with layered child like vocals and simple piano parts. 'Cartoons and Macrame Wounds' continues to draw on simple piano parts and shows hints of the happier moments from 'Kites' or 'Frengers' without feeling as though they are just copying themselves. The subtly growing intensity throughout the track is perfectly balanced by the quiet moments and sugar sweet lines like "Put your hand in mine and we will go skating", and the hummed refrain towards that closes the track sets up 'Hawaii Dream' perfectly to just creep out of the silence left. 'Hawaii' itself then bounces in with all the chimes and layered vocals before crystallising into a dense middle section and rhythmic vocals which follow the lead of the drums. It is a very clever song.

The album then becomes a series of compositions starting with 'Vaccine' which is very easy to ignore but is worth a listen as it has some nice ideas in it. 'Tricks of the Trade' then is a subtle rhythmic track with consistent drums and vocals which eventually give way intricate piano and synth that fade effortlessly into the back ground. 'Sometimes Life Isn't Easy' is a beautiful track, with simple melodic stabs, layered vocals and a cacophony of drums. It all develops into a sun drenched beauty of a track that nicely leaves the way open for 'Reprise' to close off the album in elegant fashion.

Over all it is a strange album with a lot of variation and ideas, but it uses them with maturity and focus creating a truly fascinating listen. By the time it closes you can understand why there are no more stories to be told. It is because Mew have told them all right here and some more need to be written.

A wonderful experience.

I'm new to Mew, having only come across them whilst looking for artistes similar to Thirteen Senses. Whilst I can see some similarities, what with the falseto voice and piano-based music (on a couple of occasions on the wonderful Cartoons And Macrame Wounds singer Jonas actually sounds more like Will South than the Thirteen Senses frontman himself!), Mew definately have that certain something about them that makes them impossible to pigeon-hole with other bands. Please give the backwardesque-sounding opening track New Terrain a chance as it definitely grows on you after a few listens. This is followed by the seratonin overdose that is the ultra-catchy Introducing Palace Players, which features an amazing last-minute cocktail of heavy synth, guitar and voice combo which leaves you punching the air in a gimme more kinda way before moving onto the pop-tastic Beach. Repeaterbeater is gloriously pumping up-tempo stuff, Silas The Magic Car is another beautiful track, whilst Cartoons And Macrame Wounds is a gorgeous cacophony of beautiful tunes and vocals amidst a dreamy backdrop which this band seem to have made their own.

Hawaii is another track atypical of these Danes' unique brand of audio-lushness. Vaccine ups the tempo perfectly on a CD where the track order is nothing if not perfect - so much so that to truly appreciate this body of work, it really has to be played in whole without skipping any tracks (not that any are worthy of skipping). Tricks Of The Trade is another favourite, as is Sometimes Life Isn't Easy. The album closes with the delicous melody that is Reprise, a piece of music that just leaves you wanting more.

Whatever else you purchase, make sure this masterpiece is in your shopping basket. Listen to it a few times, become addicted, recomment to your friends if they have good taste in music and be forever appreciated as the one who brought this CD-shaped ray of sunshine into their lives!

Hell yes it was worth the wait! I was worried when i watched the making of the new album online. Looking even less like rock stars and sounding less rock had me worried for a moment. When I got the album my worst fears came true - Mew looking like their mums had dressed them in the inlay pictures and first song 'New Terrain' sounding like backwards 70's space prog. Oh dear. But then something happened. After a few spins things began making sense. Gone is the bombastic rock production of Beinhorn on their last album which, to be honest, having listened to this album many times now, never really suited their ethos anyway.

Sophisticated dreamy pop is how I would now describe what Mew are doing, although as all the Mew fans know - summing up their sound with a throwaway categorisation should best be left to the emos. 'Introducing Palace Players' is a gorgeous first single and songs like 'Silas The magic Car' and 'Sometimes Life Isn't Easy' are majestic and uplifting. It defies belief that a band can make something so amazing out of a few chords a bit of production but Mew have done it again. Not one of the songs can be described as having a fast tempo which you would think would make for a boring sounding record...but no. Instead this record is comfortable in itself and its pace kept to a minimum to try and show off its assets which it effortlessly does.
Still unique, still gifted and better than ever this is their best album IMO.