AND THE GLASS HANDED KITES

"I could write an essay on this album", I said, while listening to this one.

And I probably will, but I don't have the time to really dig into that now. This isn't my favourite Mew album, nor do I think it's anywhere near a masterpiece, but it might be one of the most important modern albums that no one really talks about. The turn from indie pop darlings into math-prog weirdos, somehow without losing the core of their sound, is worth an essay on its own, but really the big discussion point here is how Mew pioneered an entire way of playing guitar that would go on to define a decade in an entirely unrelated genre, progressive metal.

I'm not even sure many of the modern prog metal bands know how much they owe to Mew, since it's almost all second-hand influence from the genre's big names - Leprous, Haken, Vola and Astronoid are all amongst the biggest names in the genre, and all of them take huge cues from the guitar playing on this album. Staccato, melodic, sharp, with chords used in the way bands used to use open string chugs. Shifting time signatures around accessible pop melodies, the focus on rhythmic memorability as well as melodic, and don't forget the reverb.

Someday I'll get around to compiling my full thoughts, but in conclusion - this isn't as good as Frengers, but it most certainly is more important

8.2 (13th listen)

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