Kites

1. Songs of the Forest

2. Wind Song

3. Emperor Kite

4. Wind Borne

5. Kite Song

6. Land of the Warrior

7. Quietly by the River Bank

8. Arrival of the Emporer: What Does the Venerable Sir Do?

9. Ch'eng: "Do You Understand This?"

10. Arrival of Chia Shan: Discourse and Liberation

11. Towards the Mountains

12. Last Question

Kites,Jade Warrior,Mango,Electronic,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock

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Average customer rating: Flat Out AWESOME Band lovely Deserves more props best of 2006? Circuitry of the wolf

And the Glass Handed Kites Mew Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Space Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Denmark | Continental Europe | Europe | International | Styles | Music Sony | Computers Brands | Computers Features | Electronics | Desktops | Monitors | Networking | Notebooks Similar Items: Frengers Frengers Yellow House Return to Cookie Mountain (with Bonus Tracks) Carnavas ASIN: B000G7PNB8 Release Date: 2006-07-25

Tracks:

1. Circuitry Of The Wolf
2. Chinaberry Tree
3. Why Are You Looking Grave?
4. Fox Club
5. Apocalypso
6. Special
7. The Zookeeper's Boy
8. A Dark Design
9. Saviours Of Jazz Ballet (Fear Me, December)
10. An Envoy To The Open Fields
11. Small Ambulance
12. The Seeing Rain Weeps For You (Uda Pruda)
13. White Lipts Kissed
14. Louise Louisa

Customer Reviews:

Flat Out AWESOME Band.......2007-06-04

I don't care what anyone says or over-ANALyzes to the contrary, this band is flat out AWESOME. One of the best rock bands ever in my opinionated opinion, and I hope they keep going for a long time to come and are still able to maintain and expand upon what they've managed to do with their first two releases. Highly inspiring, fresh, brilliant and unpredictable.

Some of their songs start off strange and uncertain, only to suddenly erupt into surprising clarity of vision. And just like any great band over the last 20 years, they take the best of what has already been done and elevate it to even higher levels. There's no way I can listen to songs like "Snow Brigade" and "Apocalypso" and stay seated in my chair for long. Give them a chance and they will rock your world in a big way.
Obviously, I highly recommend both of their CDs.

That's my brief, highly enthusiastic and emotive, if rather non-informative and non-intellectual, two cents.

lovely.......2007-05-29

I came out of my hiatus from music lately for Mew. Kind of late on this one mainly because I have been pretty bored with what is considered good these days. I am very much a "download and don't buy" kind of guy, but i actually BOUGHT this cd. It's pristine, bright, clean, enchanting, divine and a bunch of other antonyms for what my life is. This isn't perfection. There are some songs that just aren't as magnificent as the others, but even those are lovely to experience some how. Even in mediocrity (which is not often) it is still a pleasure to listen to. This band is very unique without having a gimmick or an affectation of some sort. With that being said for me it would be hard to listen to over and over in the sense that it would be hard to eat pomegranate every day. However, if you asked me if I liked pomegranate i would tell you that I LOVE it.

Deserves more props.......2007-05-27

I've lived with "Frengers" and this for some time, generally love it, and noticed I haven't said anything about it. Not that the world needs to hear from me to be complete, but there are only 12 reviews here and that's not right. Considering all the absolute [...] that gets pressed into CD's each day, and considering this is easily in the top 10 of my playlists for the last year, a little more applause is appropriate. When Mew played Seattle this spring they had to settle for a small club, and that's way out of scale for what they represent.

Not that this is a uniform effort. Their sound is new, really new, and when it works it kills, but they have the disease of varying tempos common to young bands who are striving for importance, producing songs that appear to be assemblies of individual riffs. Judging by their interviews they think this CD is a crowning achievement, but it's really only exceptional in fits and starts. But hey, they're young and fresh, they have time to grow and allow maturity to effect their work, starting with learning to live with some pain when the world doesn't appreciate everything they do.

If the principals can make a living from doing this, one has the feeling that 2 or 3 CD's down the road they might make something truly remarkable. It's worth supporting and celebrating, buy this CD for what's here, but do it also to provide some encouragement to the band. I can't think of another CD I'm looking forward to more than their next. Get to work boys, you only think this is your best music.

best of 2006?.......2007-02-17

I'm enjoying the heck out of this album. Loved it at first listen, love it even more after 30+ plays. Just blasted it coming down the freeway late at night, what a trip! It's solid from the symphonic sound, grandiose, to the high voices and lyrics. Solid also in the sense that it's a whole. The songs merge into one another. Very beautiful music to my ears. I've thoroughly checked the cream of 2006, for me this is the "creme de la creme". The first song builds up the sound as if they were looking for it, they establish it with the second , from there on it's, one beautiful song after another, to the end. The last song is poignant, a highlight of its own. They do remind me of YES, Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, all bands I love.

Circuitry of the wolf.......2007-01-29

Mew are a powerful band, blending hard rock, prog and indierock with a sweeping hand, and turning out expansive music that sounds like nothing else.

And the Danish band not disappoint in "And the Glass Handed Kites," which takes the style of their third album "Frengers" and expands on it. The result? A brilliant, shimmering piece of rock'n'roll that sounds like nothing -- and everything -- else.

It opens with a soft whine, some hesitant drums and tuning guitar, as if the band is just starting a live set. Then they gradually swing into a solid, ringing guitar riff interspersed with blasting bass and soft shimmers of keyboard. No lyrics. Except for a few angel-rock cries, they don't need 'em.

That changes with the swirling "Chinaberry Tree," with Jonas Bjerre singing about a passionate love that is disrupted: "As my first love said to me:/"I don't care. I'm not there"/So that I could not sleep/My whole being was falling apart/So that I soon cried out: "Dear friends, hold me!"

From there on, Mew tear through other sorts of music: thunderous hard rock, shivering proggy pop, riff-heavy indierock, epic anthems of stormy sound, and silvery sweeps of eerie balladry. What's more, the songs all flow into each other with hardly any pauses, until it sounds like one enormous song.

Breakout albums are usually a bit more commercial than this one -- although the songs can be catchy, there aren't any real singles, and you'd be hard-pressed to find something so intricate and intelligent on MTV.

And their music is what makes them so brilliant -- ringing, driving riffs, sharp percussion and thunderlike bass spill over the circling melodies. They're softened by soaring organ and keyboard (and a bit of sparkly piano in one song), which add an almost transcendent quality to songs like the epic "Louise Louisa." Rockwise, this is like having a religious experience.

At first listen, Bjerre's light voice sounds rather ordinary. But as the album wears on, he sounds hopeful and slightly forlorn, as he sings songs of exquisite strangeness. "Are you, my lady, are you?... In a submersible I can hardly breathe/As it takes me inside, so the light sings/Answer me truthfully/Do the clouds kiss you/With meringue-coloured hair?"

From spun-glass ballads to epic hard-rock, Mew twines together all sorts of styles into their own art-rock masterpiece. Absolutely stunning.

Average customer rating: Uneven sounding CD . What was used for the source tapes ? Carefree, sometimes melancholy, always delightful Kites Are Fun...

Kites Are Fun The Free Design Manufacturer: Light in the Attic ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Pop | Styles | Music General | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music Baroque Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Similar Items: One by One There Is a Song Sing for Very Important People The Now Sound Redesigned Kites Are Fun: The Best Of The Free Design ASIN: B0000DF5UW Release Date: 2005-08-09

Tracks:

1. Kites Are Fun
2. Make The Madness Stop
3. When Love Is Young
4. The Proper Ornaments
5. My Brother Woody
6. 59th Street Bridge Song
7. Don't Turn Away
8. Umbrellas
9. Michelle
10. Never Tell The World
11. A Man And A Woman
12. Stay Another Season
13. The Proper Ornaments (Mono Version)
14. Kites Are Fun (Single Version)

Album Description

To this day, The Free Design remain one of the true masters of all things soft-pop-psych! Hailing from New York, The Free Design were a late '60s/early '70s family pop group, releasing seven brilliant albums and influencing countless musicians (Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Cornelius, Stereolab...). Fans of The Beach Boys and The Association take note. Originally released in 1967, this is their debut album (first time on CD in the U.S.), 24-bit remastered with 14 tracks including 2 bonus tracks 'The Proper Ornaments' (mono version) & 'Kites Are Fun' (single version). Includes 16 page color booklet w/liner notes by Cornelius & Michael White. Light In The Attic. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

Uneven sounding CD . What was used for the source tapes ?.......2007-07-21

5 stars for putting this out
2 stars for uneven sound quality
Some songs sound very good. Project 3 stereo and all.
Some sound like an MP3. Different sources? Damaged masters?
Some use noise reduction (computer based)to a fault.
The hiss sounds better than the noise reduction.
The act of calibrating an analog studio tape reproducer is becoming a lost art.
The original vinyl sounds BETTER. This is a sorry statement.
Project 3 supposedly cut their master acetates from the first generation tapes.
I can't explain why this CD sounds the way it does.
I'd have to talk to the remastering engineer.
Mike Brydalski Buffalo New York
Remember Lana Clarkson; she cant defend herself

Carefree, sometimes melancholy, always delightful.......2007-05-17

Here's a lovely musical treasure from a very specific slice of time, one that was unfairly dismissed as too poppy & lightweight. Yet it holds up far better than many "serious" offerings from the same time, and has since become an inspiration for contemporary indie-fave artists such as Stereolab.

The gorgeous harmonies, the intricate arrangements, the irresistibly catchy songs -- this is the Free Design! From the joyful summer afternoon of the title track, to the lush, soaring chorale of "Stay Another Season," this is pop music at its best. And while much of the music is boppy & upbeat, the lyrics often offer a poignant, thoughtful counterpoint. There's more going on here than initially meets the ear! Like so many songs from this time, there's often a subtle note of melancholy running just below the surface of the happiest songs. Loss & shaded memories figure just as strongly as wonder & delight.

It's also fascinating to see how they remake the hit songs of others ... for instance, "Michelle" becomes a delicate Renaissance ballad, while "The 59th Street Bridge Song" indeed slows down to a lazy, almost jazzy stroll. A very mixed bag, for all the exquisitely glossy production!

You won't find music this sweetly sincere being made these days, and the more jaded listener will probably pass it by without a second thought. But for those who want to experience another, more idyllic time, this is undeniably the perfect soundtrack. Most highly & happily recommended!

Kites Are Fun..........2004-10-14

Picture a weird commercial from 1967 - the men wearing turtleneck sweaters, the women with long blonde hair. Perhaps the ad is set in a ski lodge. The sun is impossibly bright, the music impossibly sweat and pure. Around the fire, their eyes would glow as they smiled with perfect teeth. This is a memory that is on the verge of disappearing - or perhaps, for you, it's what Clark Ashton Smith called "the nostalgia of the unknown."

The Free Design opens the gates into this long-ago time - now as dead to us as ancient Rome. Will you go there and greet the men and women at that ski lodge? Why not? It's the perfect soundtrack to a half-remembered dream, or an evocation for a vanished world.

Average customer rating: Never Thought I Would See This Album Again ! The Free Design, very unique FREE DESIGN are sugar playground fun! The New Seekers on prozac become born again christians Free Design are Fun!!

Kites Are Fun: The Best Of The Free Design Free Design Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Pop | Styles | Music General | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music Baroque Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music Traditional Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music Similar Items: Kites Are Fun Sing for Very Important People There Is a Song The Best of Free Design The Now Sound Redesigned ASIN: B000009NSN Release Date: 1998-07-28

Tracks:

1. Kites Are Fun
2. I Found Love
3. Bubbles
4. My Brother Woody
5. 2002-A Hit Song
6. Stay Another Season
7. Felt So Good
8. Kije's Ouija
9. My Very Own Angel
10. Never Tell The World
11. A Man & A Woman
12. Love You
13. Howdjadoo (Fly Me Down)
14. You Could Be Born Again
15. Now Is The Time
16. You Are My Lover

Customer Reviews:

Never Thought I Would See This Album Again !.......2005-06-11

I had this particular album on 8-track tape !! I believe that the Free Design originated in Buffalo, N.Y. I was ecstatic to find this album. It brings back so many wonderful memories. I was always very fond of "Kites are Fun" and "My Brother Woody" I have ordered the album and cant wait to get it !!

The Free Design, very unique.......2003-10-13

I don't have this album but came across "Kites are Fun" on a compilation album with other artists and I've heard the song many times along with, My Brother Woody and the 59th Street Bridge Song. All I have to say is they have a style all their own, much emphasis on the vocal harmonies but with a trendy '67ish backbeat to their songs. It amazes me that in such a turbulent time a group tried to chart hits with some of these, well, odd songs. No other time in history before or after the 60's would anyone attempt that musically.

FREE DESIGN are sugar playground fun!.......2002-05-26

Hard to believe this band came out of such a violent period with frothy tunes about flying kites,but yes indeed.I heard the song "Kites are fun" on a cd comp of 60s pop.I couldn't believe what I was hearing!Heavens!I liked it,though,so I bought this compilation.As I listened,visions of Stereolab danced in my head.Good golly!FREE DESIGN were so far ahead of their time.Excellent music and lyrics(either tongue in cheek or sincere(gulp)

The New Seekers on prozac become born again christians.......2001-05-24

I bought this C.D. in hopes of finding something new. Well,I did. The groups vocal arrangements are very well done, and the sound quality is great. But........The songs themselves are wayyyyy tooo sweet. Like phoney sweet not like real surgar but like sweet & low sweet. When I finished listening I spent two days trying to figure out how someone could of come up with such bizzarely innocently happy lyrics. They made The 1910 Fruit Gum Co. sound like Black Sabbath.

Free Design are Fun!!.......2001-04-25

On the flipside of the 60's guitar-and-noise excess, you had the sharp, clear harmonies of groups like the Free Design. They we're arranging baroque-pop (like Bacharach and the Beach Boys) with Mama's and the Papa's like choral verses about simple, childlike topics (kites, Ouija boards). Hopelessly square - the music is much more at home in the 21st century where groups like Stereolab have muted jazz-pop into experimental ambient-pop (listen to "Dots and Loops" for obvious influences!)

A must have for any music geek or audiophile into sessions.

Average customer rating:

Kites Jade Warrior Manufacturer: Eclectic Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | New Age | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Similar Items: Way of the Sun Jade Warrior Released Breathing the Storm Octopus ASIN: B000GB7DN0 Release Date: 2006-10-10

Tracks:

1. Songs Of The Forest
2. Windsong
3. The Emperor Kite
4. Wind Borne
5. Kite Song
6. Land Of The Warrior
7. Quietly By The River Bank
8. Arrival Of The Emperor
9. The Ch'eng
10. Arrival Of Chia Shan
11. Towards The Mountains
12. The Last Question

Album Description

Eclectic Discs are pleased to release the classic albums recorded by the legendary Jade Warrior for Island records between 1974 and 1978. The duo of guitarist Tony Duhig and virtuoso flautist and woodwind player Jon Field were signed to Island records in 1974, following the recent break up of the four piece Jade Warrior (who recorded three albums for Vertigo records between 1970 and 1973). Island founder Chris Blackwell signed the duo upon the recommendation of Steve Winwood, declaring Jade Warrior to be "an ornament to my label". Blackwell gave Duhig and Field access to unlimited studio time to create four albums that were later hailed as instrumental masterpieces, all of which fused ethnic African and far eastern influences with superbly innovative rock guitar playing by Tony Duhig.

Kites is yet another milestone album and features the extraordinary talents of Fred Frith (of experimental legends Henry Cow) on violin and makes its debut as a CD release in its own right. Kites has been re-mastered from the original master tapes and features extensive liner notes, deluxe slip case packaging and fully restored artwork.

Album Description

Digitally remastered reissue of the 1976 album, the first CD appearance of this album in it's own right, featuring extensive liner notes, slipcase packaging and restored artwork. The duo of guitarist Tony Duhig and virtuoso flautist and woodwind player Jon Field were signed to Island records in 1974, following the recent break up of the four piece Jade Warrior (who recorded three albums for Vertigo Records between 1970-73). Island founder Chris Blackwell signed the duo upon the recommendation of Steve Winwood, declaring Jade Warrior to be "an ornament to my label". Blackwell gave Duhig and Field access to unlimited studio time to create four albums that were later hailed as instrumental masterpieces, all of which fused ethnic African and Far Eastern influences with superbly innovative rock guitar. 12 tracks including 'Windsong' and 'Songs Of The Forest'. Features Fred Frith on violin. Eclectic. 2006.

Average customer rating:

Phos: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Greek Album Manufacturer: EMI Int'l ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Theodorakis | Theodorakis, Mikis | ( T ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music Greece | Continental Europe | Europe | International | Styles | Music General | International | Styles | Music General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music International | Imports | Stores | Music ASIN: B0002I8UFM Release Date: 2004-09-14

Tracks:

1. Train Leaves at Eight - Pyx Lax
2. My Love (Phaedra) - Alkistis Protopsalti
3. Beautiful City [Live] - George Dalaras, The Metropole Orchestra
4. Who Pursues My Life - Haris Katsimihas, Panos Katsimihas
5. Someday They'll Come - Yiannis Kotsiras
6. Old Streets
7. If You Remember My Dream - Yannis Ploutarhos
8. Kites
9. Magical Night [Live] - Yannis Parios
10. Make Your Bed for Two - Haris Alexiou
11. Of Foreign Lands - Dimitris Mitropanos
12. I Was Lost
13. Golden-Green Leaf
14. Drapetsona - Antonis Remos
15. Complaint - Pashalis Terzis
16. You Were Complaint
17. On the Hidden Shore (Denial)
18. Solitary Swallow/O Sun of Justice [Live] - Mikis Theodorakis

Average customer rating: Kites Are Fun Import Release No jewel case! The best of 1960s pop harmony The best of 1960s pop harmony

Kites Are Fun The Free Design Manufacturer: Jvc Japan ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Pop | Styles | Music General | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music Baroque Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop | Imports | Stores | Music ASIN: B000065ECQ Release Date: 2002-05-22

Tracks:

1. Kites Are Fun
2. Make the Madness Stop
3. When Love Is Young
4. Proper Ornaments
5. My Brother Woody
6. 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
7. Don't Turn Away
8. Umbrellas
9. Michelle
10. Never Tell the World
11. Man and a Woman [From A Man and a Woman]
12. Stay Another Season
13. Kites Are Fun [Single Version]

Album Description

Japanese exclusive reissue of 1967 album that's unavailable domestically. Packaged in a limited edition miniature LP sleeve. Includes the bonus track 'Kites Are Fun' (single version).

Album Details

Japanese Limited Edition in an LP-STYLE Slipcase.

Customer Reviews:

Kites Are Fun Import Release.......2005-02-25

If you are a Free Design Fan, you'll definitely like the CD, especially if you have not heard the material for a number of years. Where the disc falls short is in the re-mixing. I have the original vinyl and I heard distict differences in the CD. I don't know if they had the original masters in Japan, but not only are the mixes different, but the first note of the bass solo in the beginning of Kites Are Fun is distorted. It sounds like someone was riding the levels and brought down the volume on the bass by the third note.

All that being said; the disc does sound good overall.

No jewel case!.......2004-07-14

For the price I would have expected the CD to come with a jewel case at the very least!

The best of 1960s pop harmony.......2002-07-29

I grew up with this album on LP (it was my parents') and to this day I am still haunted by the music, the arrangements and lyrics on it. Chris Dedrick is a wonderful composer, not to mention an incredible vocal arranger, and with his siblings has presented a debut album that is brimming with artistry and an evident pure love of what vocal harmonies can do. As a founder and vocal arranger of my own vocal group, I have turned to my "Kites Are Fun" album for inspiration. Even their covers of well-known tunes (my favorite being "59th Street Bridge Song") are re-presented in a whole new fresh light. I'm glad to know that they have recently reunited, recorded and released a new CD (which sounds great). Along with "The Singers Unlimited" and very early "The Manhattan Transfer", "The Free Design" must go in the vocal group hall of fame.

The best of 1960s pop harmony.......2002-07-29

I grew up with this album on LP (it was my parents') and to this day I am still haunted by the music, the arrangements and lyrics on it. Chris Dedrick is a wonderful composer, not to mention an incredible vocal arranger, and with his siblings has presented a debut album that is brimming with artistry and an evident pure love of what vocal harmonies can do. As a founder and vocal arranger of my own vocal group, I have turned to my "Kites Are Fun" album for inspiration. Even their covers of well-known tunes (my favorite being "59th Street Bridge Song") are re-presented in a whole new fresh light. I'm glad to know that they have recently reunited, recorded and released a new CD (which sounds great). Along with "The Singers Unlimited" and very early "The Manhattan Transfer", "The Free Design" must go in the vocal group hall of fame.

Average customer rating:

Peace Trials Kites Manufacturer: Load Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Noise | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music ASIN: B000BEZOWY Release Date: 2005-11-01

Tracks:

1. Flag Torn Apart
2. Something About America
3. Exploded Face
4. Dirt
5. Downward/Creepy Crawl
6. Baby Fawn with Broken Legs
7. True
8. Peace Trials

Average customer rating:

Favorite Huqin Pieces Manufacturer: Hugo ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD China | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music General | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music General | International | Styles | Music General | International | Indie Music | Stores | Music ASIN: B00004W1OU Release Date: 2000-07-25

Tracks:

1. The Tunes Of Shaanxi Opera
2. Mei Hu Medley
3. The Ditty Of Shandong Province
4. The Beautiful Scenery Of Shanxi Province
5. Beautiful Southern Scenery
6. Daqiban
7. Pretty Girl
8. Flying Kites
9. The Ditty Of Henan Province
10. The Crescent Moon Before Dawn
11. Happy Year
12. On The Grasslands

Average customer rating: best of 2006 Flying Kites Dream Pop/Shoegaze Shoegaze? No. Mew seems to be walking a tightrope

And the Glass Handed Kites Mew Manufacturer: Sony / Bmg Import ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Space Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Denmark | Continental Europe | Europe | International | Styles | Music Rock | Imports | Stores | Music Similar Items: Frengers No Balance Palace It's Never Been Like That The Trials of Van Occupanther She Came Home for Christmas/That Time on the Ledge ASIN: B000AV47XK Release Date: 2005-10-18

Tracks:

1. Circuitry of the Wolf
2. Chinaberry Tree
3. Why Are You Looking Grave?
4. Fox Club
5. Apocalypso
6. Special
7. Zookeeper's Boy
8. Dark Design
9. Saviours of Jazz Ballet (Fear Me, December)
10. Envoy to the Open Fields
11. Small Ambulance
12. Seething Rain Weeps for You (Uda Pruda)
13. White Lips Kissed
14. Louise Louisa

Album Description

Producing dark and atmospheric songs, Mew posses a graceful beauty and create an epic sound with strikingly memorable tunes over which delicate vocals soar to angelic heights. Two years after their award-winning debut album Frengers wowed the critics, the Danish four-piece's follow-up, And The Glass Handed Kites is the fourth album for the dream-pop four piece but only the second to be available to a worldwide audience. Mew And The Glass Handed Kites features 14 total tracks including 'Apocalypso', 'Chinaberry Tree', 'A Dark Design', 'White Lips Kissed', 'The Zookeeper's Boy', 'Small Ambulance' and more. BMG. 2005.

Customer Reviews:

best of 2006.......2007-02-25

My favorite band these days. Beautiful concept album, one haunting melody after another, not one dud. Reminiscent of YES, but original and modern. DO NOT MISS THIS GEM.

Flying Kites.......2007-02-04

Mew are a powerful band, blending hard rock, prog and indierock with a sweeping hand, and turning out expansive music that sounds like nothing else.

And the Danish band not disappoint in "And the Glass Handed Kites," which takes the style of their third album "Frengers" and expands on it. The result? A brilliant, shimmering piece of rock'n'roll that sounds like nothing -- and everything -- else.

It opens with a soft whine, some hesitant drums and tuning guitar, as if the band is just starting a live set. Then they gradually swing into a solid, ringing guitar riff interspersed with blasting bass and soft shimmers of keyboard. No lyrics. Except for a few angel-rock cries, they don't need 'em.

That changes with the swirling "Chinaberry Tree," with Jonas Bjerre singing about a passionate love that is disrupted: "As my first love said to me:/"I don't care. I'm not there"/So that I could not sleep/My whole being was falling apart/So that I soon cried out: "Dear friends, hold me!"

From there on, Mew tear through other sorts of music: thunderous hard rock, shivering proggy pop, riff-heavy indierock, epic anthems of stormy sound, and silvery sweeps of eerie balladry. What's more, the songs all flow into each other with hardly any pauses, until it sounds like one enormous song.

Breakout albums are usually a bit more commercial than this one -- although the songs can be catchy, there aren't any real singles, and you'd be hard-pressed to find something so intricate and intelligent on MTV.

And their music is what makes them so brilliant -- ringing, driving riffs, sharp percussion and thunderlike bass spill over the circling melodies. They're softened by soaring organ and keyboard (and a bit of sparkly piano in one song), which add an almost transcendent quality to songs like the epic "Louise Louisa." Rockwise, this is like having a religious experience.

At first listen, Bjerre's light voice sounds rather ordinary. But as the album wears on, he sounds hopeful and slightly forlorn, as he sings songs of exquisite strangeness. "Are you, my lady, are you?... In a submersible I can hardly breathe/As it takes me inside, so the light sings/Answer me truthfully/Do the clouds kiss you/With meringue-coloured hair?"

From spun-glass ballads to epic hard-rock, Mew twines together all sorts of styles into their own art-rock masterpiece. Absolutely stunning.

Dream Pop/Shoegaze.......2006-10-25

this is in response to the person who said that Mew doesn't sound like MBV etc..

Mew do actually sound like all of those bands you mentioned, they just take it in a different, more updated direction. listen to the Ride song OX4 and tell me you don't hear the similarities between that song and Comforting Sounds.

it's Dream Pop for the new millenium. like... Sigur Ros, Mogwai, M83, Amusement Parks On Fire... etc, etc. they are all, in my opinion, updating that old Creation Records, 4AD sound.

anyhow, Mew are an amazing band. check them out.

Shoegaze? No........2006-10-05

I've given this album (and Frengers) many listens. I've never thought of Mew as sounding like a shoegaze band. For anyone who would be put off by the notion that this album sounds anything like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, or Ride, I'd like to make a few points.

This is pop-rock with an obvious prog influence. "An Envoy to Open Fields" sounds like something Genesis would do (Gabriel era, not Collins).

The music is often a little haunting. The synthesizers and vocals are often ethereal and dreamy. These attributes are present in the shogaze genre. However, these attributes are also present in prog rock genre.

For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of both genres.

Mew seems to be walking a tightrope.......2006-09-12

The Danish quartet Mew may yet be onto something potentially great. Certainly, "And the Glass Handed Kites" offers many transcendent moments when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In those moments, the soaring vocal choruses, guitar riffs, rippling bass, and pumped up percussion break through a cloying veneer of overproduction and nagging strings.

Mew seems to be walking a tightrope, part power, part emo, but the strength of the songs and performances win out. Singer Jonas Bjerre, guitarist Bo Madsen, bassist Johan Wohlert, and drummer Silas Graae still have plenty of time to hook up with some producer such as Brian Eno or Daniel Lanois who could shift them to the next level, diminish the strings, and focus on the core elements that drive the sound.

If you are like me, the awful CD booklet with an unreadable italic san-serif type and poorly rendered artwork does little to tempt the curious. Let's hope for improvements on Mew's next release.

Average customer rating: Late 60's British club scene

Kites Simon Dupree & Big Sound Manufacturer: See for Miles ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Pop | Styles | Music General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Rock | Imports | Stores | Music Pop | Imports | Stores | Music ASIN: B0000011AF Release Date: 1994-12-16

Tracks:

1. Kites
2. Like The Sun Like The Fire
3. Sleep
4. For Whom The Bell Tolls
5. Broken Hearted Pirates
6. 60 Minutes Of Your Love/A Lot Of Love (Medley)
7. Love
8. Get Off My Bach
9. There's A Little Picture Playhouse
10. Day Time, Night Time
11. I See The Light
12. What Is Soul
13. Amen
14. Who Cares
15. She Gave Me The Sun
16. Thinking About My Life
17. It Is Finished
18. I've Seen It All Before
19. You Need A Man
20. Reservations

Customer Reviews:

Late 60's British club scene.......1999-09-14

I grew up with these guys. If you don't believe they are from Portsmouth, check out Broken Hearted Pirates. BTW, Schulman could have told you that Simon Dupree was the mayor of Portsmouth. Pity they didn't take more pictures. The CD cover is from the same photo shoot as my old vinyl. It reminds me of growing up in Portsmouth in the 60's and a girl that I once liked. (Helen, why didn't you call?) The music is typical of the late 60's club scene in Britain after the first British invasion and the first flush of flower power. Check out their version of Sam Cooke's classic Amen and rock to Without Reservations. You will soon realise that the track Kites is really atypical. Play Up Pompey!

Meditation Music:

1. Letting Go
2. Like the Ocean
3. Lotus
4. Magical Elfin Collection
5. Mil Amores
6. Morning Breeze
7. Moving Moments
8. Music of the Night: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
9. Narada Christmas 1
10. Narada Mystique: Sampler One

Meditation Music

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Meditation Music

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Herb Alpert's Ninth [Original recording remastered]

Domenico Maria & Pietro Paolo Melli: Musiche a voce sola e intavolature di liuto e tiorba

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El Pico Del Tucán

Food for Woofers, Vol. 2: Car Hi-Fi Demos [Import]

The Very Best of Gene Allison: You Can Make It if You Try

Beautiful