Dreamy Vocals, Soaring Melodies
Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 06/24/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Those contemplating Half The World Is Watching Me as their first outing with Mew will likely balk at the price. Even the prices advertised by amazon partners may give the musically cautious cause for pause. I can understand that. Why waste good money on something that may turn out to be tripe? However, since I already owned the other Mew recordings and enjoyed them, I dug deep and ordered this.
There is a lot to like, though if you already have the band's later recordings you may be annoyed that you had already heard about half of what's here. At least these apparently original versions are different from the more polished later renditions.
The dreamy vocals of Jonas Bjerre infuse the soaring alt-pop melodies and off-beat lyrics of this unconventional Danish quartet with an almost feminine sweetness. How many singers can sing about kissing saliva and make it sound romantic? On Disc 1, fully half of the songs are later reworked but overall, this disc is pretty solid. Many listeners may actually find that on hearing both versions, that they prefer some of these originals. Symmetry is a good example of a song that I prefer in the version presented here.
On Disc 2, there are only a couple that are later redone and maybe even renamed. My favorites here are the live Wheels Over Me and the live Wherever.
With Half The World Is Watching Me, the listener gets roughly 75 minutes worth of music. The CD set is accompanied by a booklet containing pictures, album information, brief commentary by some band members, and the lyrics to the songs on Disc 1, which contains the songs that comprised the original release.
Did I get my money's worth? Well, over time I will. This is an album I will come back to again and again. Something must be going right for a band that had released only 5000 copies of this fine sophomore effort the first time around and which has now seen fit to revisit it. I am awaiting the band's next release and hope its even half as enjoyable as the first four have been."
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1