Touched by a Danish (band)
In the last weeks I have almost been overcome by a new musical discovery (new for me, not so new for others). I should first explain that I listen to music almost non stop during the day and when I find something that talks directly to my innards I fall in love (we are talking meet the parents, discuss marriage kind of love). I somehow stumbled across the Danish band Mew over at the net radio site Last FM (worth checking that site out - quite a cool setup and our brethren Hidden Shoal Recordings have their catalogue up for your listening pleasure). I think when I first listened to their second album, "Frengers", I was struck by an almost guilty kind of pleasure. I felt like I was hearing Europe doing Sigur Ros covers (bad description but perhaps an example of the border riding and hopping this band does. This was like progressive pop music or as they describe it somewhere on their site, Bliss Rock. Their latest offering, "And the Glass Handled Kites" builds on that album and as fast as you can say, "Damn the Danish" you find yourself slave to the cd, using it as a buffer against silence. The music is soaring, dripping in wonderful pop sensibilities and full of inventive and dare I say prog rock influenced arrangements. I think one of the things that really touches me about this band is the musical freedom they seem to allow themselves. By eschewing the rules of musical cool they have seemed to have made one of the coolest records this year.
