Mew
+ –
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM
6/10
For the better part of two decades, Danish four-piece Mew has balanced ethereal soundscapes with poppy sensibilities, creating a uniquely captivating, genre-crossing sound. It might have been six years since the pioneering band’s last full-length (which was done without bassist Johan Wohlert, who returns here), but Mew’s sixth record + – (“plus minus,” if you want to say it out loud) follows through on the band’s characteristic spirit of experimentation, juxtaposing those elements on ten brand-new tracks. The album is most successful on the graceful, electronic wonder of opener “Satellites” and the soaring urgency of “Witness” that follows immediately after, but the epic ten-plus minutes of “Rows” is also its own fascinating musical journey. Yet there are moments—especially the soft-soul pop of “Making Friends,” the rather tepid schmaltz of “Interview the Girls,” and the unconvincing, diluted quasi-hip-hop lilt of “Water Slides”—where the band sounds a little bit lost, caught in limbo between those two musical worlds. It makes, sadly, for an uneven record that never quite reaches the splendor it’s aiming for, or which it deserves.
