Familiarize Yourself

For those of you familiar with Mew from their recent release No More Stories… (Sony, 2009) and tour with NINs- check out their early beginnings, with my personal favorite: Frengers (Sony, 2003).

Danish quartet Mew tugs at the heartstrings and digs deep into the emotional pit of yearning for love with Frengers. Mew has crafted a beautifully fragile album, defined by vocalist Jonas Bjerre’s high falsetto crying out melancholy lyrics and held intact by triumphant instrumentation. The optimistic music contrasting with the somber lyrical themes evoke an ironic sense of loneliness and fulfillment in their songs.

Mew instantly captivates listeners with “Am I Wry? No” An attention commanding bass drum and quick cymbal open the album and are counterbalanced by a welcoming guitar riff. Drummer Silas Graae pours heavily into his quick paced offbeat drum pattern and Bjerre’s ethereal voice complains, “Indifference is killing me!” As they segue in and out of chorus, verse and bridge the band appears to have no reservations changing time signatures, a trick that can be heard several places on the album.

In “Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years” Bjerre’s gentle vocals echo the fragile childlike coo of Stina Norderstam’s voice. She makes a perfect accompaniment to this love song as they ping-pong the lyrics “If I could look you in the eyes/ I couldn’t let you go” back and forth at each other. It’s a tender and hopeful song breaking up the sorrow that embodies the others.  On the aforementioned and on “Symmetry,” featuring 14-year-old Becky Jarret, Bjerre’s vocals come across as more masculine than heard anywhere else on the album due to the female accompaniments.

Wrapping up the album is “Comforting Sounds,” a gorgeous nine-minute lullaby that opens with a soothing guitar melody before Bjerre’s high falsetto plaints, “I don’t feel alright in spite of these comforting sounds you make.” Despite the distress of the lyrics, the song itself is relaxing and remains quite calm before building into an explosion of bass, drum, keys, and guitar with Bjerre’s moan soaring high above in his otherworldly manner. Though this song is longer than the rest of the pieces, there is never a moment in which it feels like it is dragging and it has the effect of leaving listeners desirous of more.

Enjoy.