NEW YORK, NY (Columbia Records) - Columbia Records is releasing an American edition of Frengers, the critically-acclaimed international breakthrough album from the innovative Danish rock band Mew, on Tuesday, January 23, 2007.
Originally released in the U.K. and Europe in April 2003, Frengers - its name a contraction of "friends" and "strangers" - featured new recordings of the best songs from Mew's first two limited release independent albums: A Triumph For Man (1997) and Half The World Is Watching Me (2000). Immediate local response to the new Mew album proved so strong that Mew was named Band of the Year and Frengers Album of the Year at the 2003 Danish Music Critics Awards ceremony.
The Danish music writers' enthusiasm for Mew and Frengers was shared by the UK music press. The NME called the album " ... Glorious ... " while Bang called it "A multi-textured mini-masterpiece ... a work of quiet brilliance ... a winner."
Time Out London observed that " ... this Danish quartet's debut melts your heart with its exhilarating, sorrowful beauty," while The Times asked the musical questions, " ... you wonder if Mew could turn out to be the first great Danes of pop."
Metro praised Mew for being "Weird, lovely, and quite unlike any other Danish band you've ever heard," while the Independent On Sunday rhapsodized, "Frengers is an album to listen to when you've just fallen in love, but the object is many miles away. Or just fall in love with."
Columbia Records introduced American audiences to Mew with the release of the group's newest album, And The Glass Handed Kites ... in July 2006. While the album achieved critical success - Entertainment Weekly called it "large in both sound and concept," while Pitchfork hailed Mew as "cutting edge elegant ... this could be the escape of the year, a curve off into the lush, ambitious stargazing that used to happen all the time" - Mew began converting U.S. audiences with a memorable series of staggering performances, both as headliners at SRO shows in Los Angeles and New York as well as tours with Bloc Party, Broken Social Scene, Secret Machines and Kasabian. With the ongoing success of And The Glass Handed Kites ... , the time was right to introduce Mew's American fans to the band's classic 2003 collection, Frengers.
Mew won four major awards earlier this year at the annual Danish Music Awards, including Best Band, Best Singer, Best Album, and Best Rock Album. In 2005, Mew was honored with Best Breakthrough Act at the Nordic Music Awards. The group was also awarded with Best Album, Best Song and Best Male Singer at Denmark's Zulu Awards. MTV recognized Mew as the Best Danish Band.
Frengers tracklisting
01 Am I Wry? No
02 156
03 Snow Brigade
04 Symmetry
05 Behind The Drapes
06 Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years
07 Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed
08 She Came Home For Christmas
09 SheSpider
10 Comforting Sounds
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