The first track on No More Stories, ‘New Terrain’, sounds like the Arcade Fire played backwards through a mangler. This is because when you actually play it backwards (not necessarily through a mangler) it’s a secret track called ‘Nervous’ (check it on YouTube).
The second number, ‘Introducing Palace’, features a glitchy rhythm section imitating a skipping CD, which then launches into a synth-washed major chord chorus featuring a high-pitched indie castrati (or an eight-year old Wayne Coyne).
Two songs in and there can be no doubt – Mew play pretentious art rock. And more power to them. It’s very good pretentious art rock. As the record progresses, there’s more than a touch of Sigur Ros at their core – piano, falsetto vocals, and splashy jazz drums – but it’s a version of Sigur Ros with lots of prog rock records, a broken turntable, and a taste for clashing time-signatures. Elsewhere, Afro-beat vocals and west Indian steel-drums make way for an explosion of shoegazy guitar and synth (‘Hawaii’). Then on ‘Trick Of The Trade’ the synths take over on a folky melody that makes them sound a bit like Enya’s ‘hipper’ cousins.
With all those lush synths, falsetto vocals and ‘80s fetishes, Mew are definitely swimming in the same artistic waters as Passion Pit and MGMT, but they’re doing so more eclectically, unpredictably and therefore more interestingly. Lord knows what they’ll do next, really.