![and the glass handed kites mew rar and the glass handed kites mew rar](https://www.henrywilliamson.co.uk/images/stories/alifeswork4/RAR_12a_RAR_bday_RLCW_1945.jpg)
The true highlight of this magnificent record though is its centerpiece triptych of songs, “Apocalypso,” “Special” and the crown jewel, “The Zookeeper’s Boy.” The first chugs along with meaty guitar riffs and the memorable repetition of the word, “care-lines.” The second thumps with a Peter Hook-y bass and creates a new genre I’d like to call `prosco,’ a combo of prog and disco. His falsetto recalls that of Sigur Rós’ Jón Birgisson, ethereal and otherworldly, as if we were listening not to bands from Denmark and Iceland, but instead to bands from some distant planet, having been drawn to earth by the sounds of Radiohead. Every song is another pearl, waiting to be discovered thanks to the vocal delicacy of Jonas Bjerre. Flavors of disco, new wave, hard rock and others can be plucked out at random, yet all find their way seamlessly into harmony with the jazzy mix. Songs flow into one another effortlessly, and genres blend into the prog stew like spices in chili. Radiohead, the Mars Volta, and the aforementioned band that is sure to garner some confusion, Muse, have all dabbled with the spacey concept art, yet no one takes it to the heights of pop accessibility better than Mew. Prog rock has never been as fashionable past its prime than right now. Well, get out your extinguishers and ready the tanker trucks, because here comes the stateside release, finally, of And the Glass Handed Kites! Even then, Frengers didn’t set the world on fire. Danish prog-pop band Mew already had two successful albums in their home country, yet no one had heard of them until Columbia picked up the band and released Frengers, an encapsulation of the best songs from the first two efforts. “Those guys who did `Time is Running Out?'” “Man this song is great! Whose song is this?”
![and the glass handed kites mew rar and the glass handed kites mew rar](http://albumformat.com/images/128/frank-black-men-in-black.jpg)
The song “The Zookeeper’s Boy,” having already been released in Europe where it became a huge radio hit, and having garnered enough pre-buzz here in the states to merit various reviews of the import album, is so good, I can picture it transcending even pop music: