No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away.

This is a translation of my review on Mew's new album - check exitmusic.org for its Czech version.

Mew - No More Stories / Are Told Today / I'm Sorry / They Washed Away // No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I'm Tired / Let's Wash Away.

I was asked to write a review on this album a relatively long time ago. Since then I've been thinking about what exactly I want to say to the world about this album. Mew is a band so close to me, music so personal and sensitive, that I'd never want to perform an autopsy on their almost epic piece of work. I'm listening to No More Stories... on repeat. Let's listen together.

I won't disturb my listening progress and go back to the intro. At the moment, track #7 Cartoons and Macramé Wounds is playing in my ears – and it's, in my personal opinion, the strongest piece on this album. Do you know that feeling, when your heart seems to be trembling and you don't know if it's going to race like never or just stop? That's what I'm feeling right now. And there are no simple emotions like “oh and now I am going to cry”. No, now you don't know what to think, you don't actually concentrate on the song's lyrics, you just listen and feel something. Something, that you can't describe, it's just heavy inside you and cheers you up at once.

And you know what, I won't continue describing song by song. What I feel whilst listening to Cartoons doesn't really change when listening to the rest of the album. After the very first listen it seems like a very calm album, for some a bit whiny and dreamy, but that's not right. In those pieces, in those tones and in Jonas Bjerre's vocals, there is so much epic power that makes you wonder why you haven't noticed it before. There's a beautiful phrase in English - “effortlessly epic” (thanks James Ether) – that describes this album on the dot. And I'm not even in that phase of listening to an album, when I analyze the lyrics. After one month of listening to it I'm still on the stage of dumb adoration, when I am floating on the music's waves and letting them do with me whatever they intend to.

Mew don't deserve common “it's like this and this and the interpreter made it like that and this is how it is supposed to sound and this is what it means” kind of a review. Basically, I am writing this review like their music has always appealed to me – a slightly modified stream of consciousness. But this album deserves more. This album is a collection of this autumn's anthems.