Review Summary: Fantastic moods and beautiful sounds with little to complain about.
Consistency is such a hard thing to come by in any medium of art, be it film, music or even video games. Just about anyone in all mediums has one, or if they’re really good, two milestones in their career that are generally considered their best work. The fact that said milestone is highly regarded in comparison with their other work means that their other accomplishments are of a lower caliber, making the quality of the artist’s work inconsistent overall. Let’s take this idea to a smaller level, one within the duration of a single music album.
The quality of music found on Mew’s
Frengers is consistently great; with the exception of one song, which will be mentioned later, this album is a captivating and surreal experience. Every element of the band on this record works so well both individually and together, and Jonas Bjerre’s beautiful, sweeping voice acts as an adhesive to ensure the elements stick together to ultimately create one remarkable and beautiful product. The guitar tones, the minimalist drumming, the subtle yet effective bass and the aforementioned soaring vocals all come together for such an enjoyable alt rock/dream pop hybrid.
In fact, dreamy is a prominent mood present on the album; the music has a thick, concrete foundation, yet flows gracefully and comes off as being very lightweight, much like the feeling one gets when dreaming. It’s somewhat of a difficult effect to explain, really, because it’s dense and thin at the same time. There are many albums that can do this, but this one does it so perfectly and consistently. Although there aren’t any heavy parts in the sense of distorted guitars and harsh vocals, there are many parts that feel heavy because of sheer density and emotion. What makes it even better is there as many calm and soothing moments to offset the “heavy” ones; although the album is generally dreamy, it has many sub-moods, if you will, to keep it interesting.
A wonderful example of the album’s surreal effect is the perfect “Snow Brigade”. The whole song is a fantastic dreamy romp, but its climax in particular is one that demands the listener’s attention and throws them into the album if they haven’t jumped in yet. Once again, Bjerre’s vocals really take it to the next level and polish the already beautiful music. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. As consistent as this album is, it has a couple missteps. “Her Voice is Beyond Her Years” starts out promising enough, but never deviates from a monotonous rhythm and chord progression, and not even Bjerre’s vocals are spectacular enough in this song to save it from being a skippable and borderline filler track.
The only other real issue with the album is in a way one of its strengths: its massively atmospheric nature can get tiring and overwhelming near the end. Since the album starts out strong and presents you with its best features immediately, it’s hard to appreciate it when it ends as much as when it started. Obviously this isn’t a major flaw, but since every song generally follows the same formula, it gets less and less impressive as the album goes on. "Am I Wry?" does a marvelous job in opening the album with its immediately likable flare and perfect level of energy for opening an album like this. In addition, since the album is so consistent, nine out of the ten songs are truly great, so you could really start on any track and not lose the initial sensation for a few songs. The album ends on a spectacular note as well; "Comforting Sounds", the longest song on the album at over eight minutes, showcases hints of prog with a constant build that explodes with an extremely satisfying climax and conclusion.
Frengers is truly a unique experience. What sets it apart from other alt rock and dream pop records is its immense yet graceful atmosphere, fantastic vocals and unbelievable consistency. This album is undoubtedly very enjoyable and its flaws are easily overlooked. However, as great as the previous statement makes it sound, it may become difficult to hold your attention for its entire 49 minute duration due to its initially very impressive but eventually underwhelming atmosphere and sound. A beautiful album and wonderful listen nonetheless,
Frengers is an album definitely worthy of your time if you haven’t looked into it.
