As the weather turns my thoughts turn to music. To be fair, my thoughts normally turn to music and I love having my seasons defined by records. While Teenage Fanclub, Todd Fancey and Bart Davenport saw me through the magical summer, a few talents have returned to entrance me as the leaves begin to fall.

Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
These Danes have intrigued me since the release of their debut "Frengers" some years ago. While it wasn't the first record they actually put out, it was the first with any real distribution outside of Scandinavia. The debut was chock full of potential, so much so that the boys decided they wanted a more worldly outlook for the next record. As they packed up their bags and moved to London, to set their sights on a higher music plain. Mew and the Glass Handed Kites has more than achieved that. With one continuous sweep they have recorded 60 minutes of pure prog rock bliss. Prog rock? But Liz you're saying... you're a tweepop kinda girl? Well I'd be careful not to stereotype me or this band. They may hit spacey highs, create more bizarre chord progressions than a 13-year-old with a new Fender and leave people with a solid verse-chorus-verse background scratching their heads in confusion... but they are more, so much more than a label.

In the weeks since this record has seen a release (UK and Europe only at this point) I've listened over and over... almost becoming obsessive. I'm intrigued with every new listen because every time something new pops out of the experience. And to say it's an experience is not an exaggeration. The 14 tracks on offer have a continuous flow to them that immediately makes the critic in me think 'concept album' but as far as I can hear, the only concept on the table here is to blow each and every listener's mind. There are moments of individual beauty (1. the progression from track 5, Apocalypso, through Special to track 7, The Zookeeper's Boy; 2. the perfect integration of vocals from J. Macsis [Dinosaur Jr.] in Are You Looking Grave? without losing their touch on the song) but this is one cohesive odyssey from every vocal high to bass low. Each song segues from one mind-fuck (pardon the language) into another displaying Mew's interesting sense of song structure... they don't subscribe to the layers of glass and steel song building we've come to know (think Mies Van der Rohe) but show a more warped and twisted metal design (ala Frank Gehry). You can stare at it and aren't quite sure how it's standing up but can be completely at ease that it's one of the most beautiful and original buildings (errr... sounds) you've ever heard.
Official Mew website

The Clientele - Strange Geometry
The world might be justified in initially thinking that The Clientele play in a monochromatic palette. If it was monotone I would imagine it to be the color of tea; no milk, no sugar, just a warm wash of sepia. But The Clientele don't do this, that would be a gimmick and this sound is the opposite of distracting trickery. There are no keyboards, no special effects, no light show or cheerleaders. What The Clientele have always done is to strip down their sound and leave the effect up to deceptively simple guitar harmonies and vocals for a new level of purity. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals (and on this record subtle yet highly effective strings arranged by former él Records artist Louis Philippe). There is nothing oooh-oooh-lookit-me as the contrived lays by the wayside and they are left with undiluted tone.

The world of The Clientele isn't a monochromatic cup of tea, it's a world in which seemingly banal daily cuppa becomes anything but mundane. This new existence brought to life through Alasdair McLean's poetic verse and voice is fresh. Much like visual artists obsess over the tiniest details, it's the minute poetics through which we can see a full picture of the universe through their eyes (or "my own face within the trees"). Glimpsing into this new world they've created, it's the shadows on the leaves that catch your eye not the perspective of yet another tree in one's path. They explore new territory with the spoken wanderings of "Losing Haringey", they make simple statements of love in "Step into the Light" somehow more profound with wistful guitars, they show us a whole new darkness in "E.M.P.T.Y." with an almost hallucinatory beauty. While each and every song could bring a tear to your eye or a smile to your lips, this is most notably a record and as a whole, this album is absolutely magnificent and easily pronounced as their finest to date.
Official Clientele website