Here’s the quick review: while I was listening to this album, the number one thing that I kept thinking was, “I wonder if, given that the US release of this album didn’t take place until the beginning of ‘06, I could get away with putting this in the top 5 of my year-end top albums list — because that’s where it would go.”

The slightly longer review would have to note that Mew, everybody’s favorite Danish postpunk band, inhabit a sonic world rendered vaguely familiar by bands like Interpol, Snow Patrol, and even Coldplay. However, Mew are more oblique — but at the same time, yes, perhaps even better — than any of those bands. They require more effort on the part of the listener than any of their counterparts, and they’re not interested in giving you rousing, American-radio-friendly choruses. The texture of the music is much more detailed than essentially anyone working the same territory at the moment. Sure, the guitars chime, and the drums stutter along effectively, but harmoniums, bells, and woozy pianos come to the surface as well. They’ve listened to Joy Division and Three Imaginary Boys too, but there’s a heavy dose of Bowie on his German records, My Bloody Valentine, and even late-period Talking Heads in the mix as well. It’s stunningly effective, a compendium of the past thirty years of underground art-punk that, though it shows all the right influences, doesn’t in the end sound precisely like anything else, then or now.

The vocals are consciously pushed to the back of the mix, and they’re much more understated than you might expect from this genre. I sat down for a long time trying to think of who lead singer Jonas Bjerre reminds me of, and I think it’s actually Andrew Kenny from The American Analog Set, though the contexts are completely different. The lyrics are quiet but effective, especially in the context of the music. “And what do you stay to do?” Bjerre asks toward the end of the current single, “Special” (which has a video you should watch). “I saw the worst of you,” he finishes, as the music rises and falls around him, and it’s a breathtaking moment.

“Special” is probably the most conventionally catchy song on this disc, but there’s not a weak song on the album. Some of them require more effort than others, but each of the tracks more than adequately repays the kind of repeated listening that they demand.

And, you know what? I think I’m gonna cheat and put them on this year’s list anyway. Serves ‘em right.

Rating: 9/10

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