Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites

I have no idea why I never got around to talking about this album before. I stumbled into it somehow two summers ago, and was almost turned off by its freakish-looking cover. I expected either a datedprog album, or something from the newest Scandinavian death metal band.Then I pressed play, and immediately felt like an idiot. As my mommy said, don't judge a something-something-something. And the Glass Handed Kites kicks off the show with a loud cascade of percussion and guitar, but as the dust clears away Mew takes us through not so much an album of individuals tracks, so much as a blended musical journey, seamlessly flowing from movement to movement. ...Glass Handed Kites conjures images in my head of a intense adventure movie, chocked full of passion, pirates, jungles, courtship, and the gratuitous space station ending (Alright, my imagination ran away with me a bit). Every song has its own distinct personality, each one epic in feel and scale, each one reaching for nothing less than the heaven and leaving plenty of space within to do so. If I wanted to try and be an empathetic nit-picker I could say that the epic feel of ...Glass Handed Kites is almost a draw-back; trying to create with such large proportions in mind threatens to overwhelm listeners before it has a chance to make a point. That being said, ...Glass Handed Kites would seemed trapped and claustrophobic if produced any other way.Mew seems to have struck a fine balance amongst the various instruments that find themselves on ...Glass Handed Kites. On "The Zookeeper's Boy," for example, the complex, interwoven vocal and instrumental arrangements at times feels like water cascading down over you. There are times when And the Glass Handed Kites moves like a more traditional indie rock album ("Why Are You Looking Grave?", "Circuitry of the Wolf"), but the willingness to break from that (even in 2005) tired method presents the freshness that music aficionados crave. Just a warning: And the Glass Handed Kites has a great chance of being stuck on repeat for days and weeks on end.Don't say I didn't warn you.