A year ago,when I left the UK,I pretty much gave up on Russian music.Dima K's songs were getting a bit boring and samey,Chelsi did the awful Mladhsaya Sestryonka,and I didn't know about BiS' album.More recently,I've sort of turned my back on pop altogether and have only really been listening to Scandinavian indie/classical music- which is pretty difficult to write about a lot of the time,hence the long blog break.But thanks to youtube and my new computer which refuses to ever sign me out of it,this was recommended to me yesterday.
I'm not too sure what Toska Vozrata means,but never mind.I think it's a great pop song,very summery with a singalong chorus.I'm rejoicing so much that they've gone back down the Stan Moey route and didn't stick with the Mladshaya Sestryonka stuff :)
Friday 28 August 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
Sometimes I've got nothing to say
Mew's new album was released today,the first in 4 years.I can't believe it's been that long since I discovered them in Rock Sound.I also can't believe I used to read Rock Sound,but there you go.Anyway,this album is called *deep breath*
"No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry They Washed Away, No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired, Let's Wash Away"
Got that? Good.
Some people call Mew pretentious,and yes,I would normally think that too of any band that named their album that,and the songs on it had strange titles that seem to try to look cool.Such as "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds".I had to look up what Macramé means on Wikipedia- not something that I tend to like in a song title.It might also be seen as a bit odd to include a track (New Terrain) that sounds pretty unintelligible listened to normally,but is even harder to understand played backwards,when it becomes another song (Nervous).But anyway,I don't believe Mew are pretentious at all.I adore their music and image as bizarre as it may be.
Mew have had their pop moments (sort of) with songs such as Am I Wry?No and King Christian back in the early days of Half the World is Watching Me- an album which has been released 3 times.They've also had some downright sinister songs such as 156 and A Dark Design.These sort of songs tend to be both lyrically sinister,and have a whole new layer of darkness added thanks to Jonas' distinctive voice,a voice which you wouldn't expect to sing about death and self-harm.
The No More Stories album has a very different sound to the first 4 albums,especially the previous one- And The Glass Handed Kites.The music itself is a lot more cheerful and upbeat sounding on the whole,a bit more contemporary,and some may say you can hear influences from other bands and genres more on this album.Though I think Mew's "genre" is still up for debate.The whole thing though is still unmistakably Mew- there are unusual time signatures,the aforementioned backwards song,and cryptic lyrics.There are no big epic songs like Louise Louisa this time around,and actually I still can't really tell which song is which just from listening to it.I would say Repeaterbeater and Introducing Palace Players are the potential singles,but my favourite is right at the end.I mentioned Mew's lyrics usually being quite cryptic,which is another thing I love about them.But it's pretty clear what Reprise is all about.
"No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry They Washed Away, No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired, Let's Wash Away"
Got that? Good.
Some people call Mew pretentious,and yes,I would normally think that too of any band that named their album that,and the songs on it had strange titles that seem to try to look cool.Such as "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds".I had to look up what Macramé means on Wikipedia- not something that I tend to like in a song title.It might also be seen as a bit odd to include a track (New Terrain) that sounds pretty unintelligible listened to normally,but is even harder to understand played backwards,when it becomes another song (Nervous).But anyway,I don't believe Mew are pretentious at all.I adore their music and image as bizarre as it may be.
Mew have had their pop moments (sort of) with songs such as Am I Wry?No and King Christian back in the early days of Half the World is Watching Me- an album which has been released 3 times.They've also had some downright sinister songs such as 156 and A Dark Design.These sort of songs tend to be both lyrically sinister,and have a whole new layer of darkness added thanks to Jonas' distinctive voice,a voice which you wouldn't expect to sing about death and self-harm.
The No More Stories album has a very different sound to the first 4 albums,especially the previous one- And The Glass Handed Kites.The music itself is a lot more cheerful and upbeat sounding on the whole,a bit more contemporary,and some may say you can hear influences from other bands and genres more on this album.Though I think Mew's "genre" is still up for debate.The whole thing though is still unmistakably Mew- there are unusual time signatures,the aforementioned backwards song,and cryptic lyrics.There are no big epic songs like Louise Louisa this time around,and actually I still can't really tell which song is which just from listening to it.I would say Repeaterbeater and Introducing Palace Players are the potential singles,but my favourite is right at the end.I mentioned Mew's lyrics usually being quite cryptic,which is another thing I love about them.But it's pretty clear what Reprise is all about.
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