August 25, 2009

Album review: Mew - 'No More Stories'

Proggy dreampop to make you crack out the metaphors

8 / 10 Always inventive, often beautiful and occasionally totally sublime, Mew have always stood out from the pack, and this latest – with producer Rich Costey back on board – sees them raise the bar that extra inch higher. From the powerful opener ‘New Terrain’ onwards, ‘No More Stories’ makes you want to throw dangerous metaphors around like an online fanzine reviewer. ‘Hawaii’, for example, will make you want to scream ‘widescreen’ from the top of an icy mountain, while the gorgeous ‘Cartoons And Macramé Wounds’ is simultaneously ‘epic’, ‘lush’ and ‘woozy’. And YouTube the Fever Ray-like video for ‘Introducing Palace Players’. If you’re not sold by the time the lasers hit the snail tentacles, then you’re simply dead inside.

Tim Chester

Click here to get your copy of Mew's 'No More Stories' from the Rough Trade shop.