And The Glass Handed Kites (15th Anniversary Edition)

Danish quartet Mew's dense and occasionally difficult And the Glass Handed Kites is old-fashioned only in the sense that it's meant to be eaten in a single sitting. This is not a single-driven record -- though "Special," with its bouncy, moody chorus and octave vocal delivery, sounds like an emission from a time machine parked dead center within the heydays of early-'90s alternative rock -- rather, it's a single organism. Kites takes the wisdom and volatility of the Delgados ("Chinaberry Tree"), the sonic scope of Sigur Ros ("White Lips Kissed"), and the angular guitar attack of early Ride and Dinosaur Jr. ("Circuitry of the Wolf") and melds them all into a cathartic post-rock epic that's so electrifying and unpredictable that it's almost impossible to take in with one or two listens. Fans of OK Computer-era Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, and Disintegration-era Cure will find And the Glass Handed Kites one of the most breathtaking things to come along since the dawn of the dream pop/post-punk genres themselves. ~ James Christopher Monger

デンマークの妖精クァルテット＝ミューのセカンド・アルバムは、恐ろしいほどの完成度でもって僕らの前に現れました。それはまるで（悪夢ではないが不穏な雰囲気を醸し出す）夢のような一枚。リズムやテンポの予測不能な転換、一貫した美しいメロディー。マイ・ブラディ・ヴァレンタイン、スマッシング・パンプキンズ、そのふたつの表現性を兼ね備えた傑作に、J・マスシスが2曲参加!　まさにモンスター・アルバムなのです。
bounce (C)馬嶋 亮