'and the Glass Handed Kites' by Mew
Trotter’s Top Ten position : 2 in 2005
UK Chart high : 129 in 2005
Everyone loves a bit of obscure, Danish, prog-shoegaze don't they? Wait, come back..! Mew had released three other albums before '...Kites' but I'd never heard of them. It was only because of a few plays of single 'Special' on MTV2 that I even found out they existed (and so will always be my case for the defence of music television). Firstly, the video was rather odd, beautifully shot in black and white with bonkers-dancing beardy-man and screaming woman...in a castle...at night...amongst the remnants of what looked like a wedding reception...whilst the band sang on looking rather Scandanavian and sweet. The song itself wasn't much less weird, off-kilter drums, spiky guitars, sweeping keys and angelic, falsetto vocals - in other words as far from The Fratellis as you could possibly imagine. I took a punt and bought the album and it was on of those happy surprises when you go in with no expectations and are blown away by what you find. There's only been three albums that have caused me to laugh out loud when I've first played them (not in an 'Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West' fashion but a 'I can't believe what sounds are being made' way) and this was one of them - the other two were 'Technique' and 'Disintegration' by the way. Frankly, I'd not come across anything like it, songs were almost having to be kept under control by the band, who seemed to be either playing different songs at the same time or (to quote a very wise man) playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. It also seemed to have a concept behind it (all the songs link into one another) but damned if I knew what that was. Like a lot of bands who don't have English as their first language the lyrics have a really unique spin, making use of language in ways you're not quite used to hearing (in a good way) so that there's an innocence and a darkness at play all at once. This is why I forgive them for having a track called 'Saviours of Jazz Ballet' and making me love it. I'm equally impressed at how well they perform live given the high-pitched vocals and complicated musicianship and the way they create a complete racket and then slowly shape the next track from it - that certainly keeps the crowd guessin' anyhoo! This being their fourth album it also meant that they had a back catalogue to discover which had a fair few gems amongst them - not least on the record 'Frengers' (not quite friends and not quite strangers) and I've included a link to the closing track 'Comforting Sounds' as a special little treat - building from quiet to full-on crescendo - it really is a fantastic piece of work so give it a listen. Overall, I don't want to paint a picture that it's a difficult listen and that it's overly-pretentious when in fact it has some of the poppiest hooks you could shake a Kylie at. And the fact that '...Kites' also has J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. on guest vocals should just make you want it even more. Once again though, shame on Spotify - though at least a couple of singles are lurking about to include in the playlists!
Look at Special ; The Zookeeper's Boy ; Why Are You Looking Grave? ; Comforting Sounds (from 'Frengers')
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version
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