And the Glass Handed Kites
by
Mew
Edit

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Sep 14 2005

Overview Edit

And the Glass Handed Kites is the fourth studio album by Danish band Mew. It was released 19 September 2005 in Denmark, 26 September 2005 in the rest of Europe and 26 July 2006 in the United States.

Compared to previous Mew albums, this album is unique in that the structure is built upon as if it was a single continuous suite. The album has been called 'one long song', an allusion to the tracks' unnoticed transitions.

The album has been well received by critics, with Pitchfork calling it "a terrific accomplishment". The album has won Mew several prizes in Denmark, including four Danish Music Awards.} It also features at the top of Danish music magazine Gaffa's list of best albums of 2005.

The working title for the album was "Saviours of Jazz Ballet", but even before they thought about calling it "Circuitry of the Wolf".

Despite not having been released as a single, the track "The Zookeeper's Boy" gained massive popularity with the biggest radio station in Denmark, P3, playing the track intensively. This made it the "Hit of the Year" in various polls, and when Gaffa, the biggest Danish music magazine, made a poll, it took first place, with the actual single "Special" coming in second. It was later released as a single due to popular demand.

The album's cover has earned it the dubious honor of being the second album named in Pitchfork Media's "Your Cover's Blown," a column devoted to poor album art. And also in Pitchfork Media's "Top 25 Worst Album Covers of 2006".

This was the last album to feature bassist Johan Wohlert, who left the band the following year to focus on being a father.

Promo versions of And the Glass Handed Kites were selling for around £60 ($120) a piece on eBay months before the official release.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Glass_Handed_Kites. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
82876 82593 2
Release dates:
  • Jul 25 2006 in United States

Genres

Alternative, Hard Rock, Indie, Progressive Rock, Rock, Shoegaze, Dream Pop. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars Personal Fav for 2006
By way of the internet, I was introduced to Mew initially through text. I had never actually heard their music, but by way of some few positive reviews, a little desperation, and a leap of faith, I purchased "And the Glass Handed Kites." Since it found its way into my CD player, I have concluded that it is my favorite album of 2006. Several albums have competed for this title over the course of the past few months, not the least of which was Muse's "Black Holes and Revelations." While competitio…
Written by Jeff Hodges
3 stars Mew seems to be walking a tightrope
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,…
Written by loce_the_wizard "loce_the_wizard"

Track listing Edit

Credits Edit

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Other versions Edit

And the Glass Handed Kites 16 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Epic Records Japan Inc.
catalog number: EICP-553
release dates: Sep 14 2005 in Japan
view details
And the Glass Handed Kites 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: 82876 82593 2
release dates: Jul 25 2006
view details
And the Glass Handed Kites 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: 82876 82593 2
release dates: Jul 25 2006
view details
And the Glass Handed Kites 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: 82876 82593 2
release dates: Jul 25 2006
view details
And the Glass Handed Kites 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Sony BMG Europe
release dates: Oct 18 2005
view details
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