''No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry They Washed Away // No More Stories, The World Is Grey, I'm Tired, Let's Wash Away'', often shortened down to ''No More Stories...'', is the fifth studio album by the Danish band Mew. It was released in Scandinavia on 17 August, the United Kingdom on 24 August, the United States on 25 August, and Japan on 26 August 2009. ''No More Stories...'' is produced by

Rich Costey Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling ** Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated commun ...

who also produced their breakthrough album ''

Frengers ''Frengers'', alternatively titled as ''Frengers: Not Quite Friends, But Not Quite Strangers'', is the third album by Danish band Mew, originally released on 7 April 2003. The title is a portmanteau of the words "friend" and "stranger". A freng ...

'', and is the band's first album as an official three-piece after bass player

Johan Wohlert Johan Haslund Wohlert (born 10 March 1976) is the bass player of Danish indie band Mew. He previously left the band on 11 April 2006, because he did not feel that he could be a rock star and a good father at the same time. He was boyfriend to Pe ...

left to spend time with his family, before rejoining the band prior to the release of '' + -''. According to lead vocalist

Jonas Bjerre Jonas Bjerre Terkelsbøl (born 21 September 1976) is a musician and visual artist from Copenhagen, Denmark, best known as the lead singer of Danish rock band Mew. Bjerre creates animated videos for Mew's live shows. He has an uncommon vocal ra ...

, this album is happier, "dancier", and more upbeat than its predecessor, ''

And the Glass Handed Kites ''And the Glass Handed Kites'' is the fourth studio album by Danish band Mew, released in the United Kingdom on 19 September 2005, and in the United States on 25 July 2006.adsensuggested that we used the complete text as a title it didn't take him long to convince Silas tke Graae Jørgensenand myself. It was like finding the missing piece in a puzzle". The opening track, "New Terrain", if played backwards reveals another song entitled "Nervous" which is added as a bonus track to the vinyl edition of the album. The lyrics were posted as a poem on their Danish record company Evil Office's website.

Pre-release

The band released information on a few tracks in interviews. According to SPIN.com, "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds" would be a "challenging five-minute opus" that supposedly reversed the traditional Mew formula of a quiet buildup into an epic by starting out gigantically before fizzling away into something more minimal, and "Beach" was called the band's most straightforward song ever. According to the band, they made a more upbeat album and it would not be one extended suite like the predecessor, ''

And the Glass Handed Kites ''And the Glass Handed Kites'' is the fourth studio album by Danish band Mew, released in the United Kingdom on 19 September 2005, and in the United States on 25 July 2006.Introducing Palace Players", the first single off ''No More Stories...'' was first released on their MySpace page on 28 May 2009. It features

Swirlies Swirlies is an American indie rock band formed in Boston in 1990. Since their first records in the early 1990s, the band has released studio and home recordings that blend shoegaze and twee pop with electronica and lo-fi music. Swirlies release ...

vocalist/guitarist Damon Tutunjian on bass guitar. Other than its inclusion as the lead-off track on the '' No More Stories EP'', it has not been released as a physical single. The second single from the album, entitled " Repeaterbeater", was posted as Free Mp3 of the Day by Spinner.com on 25 June 2009. "

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

" was remixed by

Trentemøller Anders Trentemøller (; born 16 October 1972) is a Danish indie/electronic music composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. History Trentemøller started music in the late 1990s with different indie rock projects. ...

and released on iTunes as the third single in April 2010. Each single was accompanied by a music video directed by

Martin de Thurah Martin de Thurah (born 29 April 1974 in Copenhagen) is a Danish film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and music video director. De Thurah graduated from National Film School of Denmark in 2002. Awards * The music video for Carpark North ...

. An edit of "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" was released as a single on 3 May 2010.

Critical reception

''No More Stories...'' was met with universal acclaim upon release. The album was extremely well received in the band's native Denmark upon release, getting top scores in reviews from most

music magazine A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music. Notable mu ...

s, including ''

Gaffa ''Gaffa'' (stylized as ''GAFFA'') is a free Nordic music magazine with local editions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''Gaffa'' is Denmark's largest and oldest music magazine. It has been published since 1983 and has 320,000 print readers and ...

'' and Soundvenue. Website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

calculated an average score of 79 out of 100 from 17 professional reviews. ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave it an A (the highest note), praising that "Mew really does inhabit a place where few contemporaries can be found." The independent review site

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

gave the album an 8.1/10, citing that "Mew has succeeded in developing a good sound from some of the least hip ingredients imaginable", while comparing the album to

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

bands of the late 1970s. British music weekly ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' gave the album 8/10, going on to say that, "Always inventive, often beautiful and occasionally totally sublime, Mew have always stood out from the pack."

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "Mew is not as thoughtful or smart as they think they are, but the force of their conviction is inspiring."

Track listing

Personnel

Mew

– vocals,

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Bo Madsen – electric guitars, acoustic guitar * Silas Graae –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, African percussion,

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mus ...

Additional

*Bastian Juel –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

on all songs except "New Terrain", "Introducing Palace Players" and "Tricks of the Trade" *Damon Tutunjian – bass on "Introducing Palace Players" *Dr. Nick Watts – additional

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

on "Introducing Palace Players", "Beach", "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds" and "Reprise" *

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras ...

–

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

, piano and

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s on "Tricks of the Trade" *Mathias Friis-Hansen – additional percussion on "New Terrain",

Kalimba Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and pl ...

on "Hawaii" and "Vaccine", and

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

on "Vaccine" *

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing al ...

–

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

on "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" * Mari Helgerlikova – additional

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

on "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" *Sellasi Dewornu – additional African percussion on "Hawaii" *

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

on tracks "Introducing Palace Players" and "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds" ** Anne Christine Berggren ** Anni Mogensen ** Nanna Secker Larsch ** Lianna Quarshie *

Children's choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

on "Silas the Magic Car" and "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" ** Mia-Marie Olesen ** Maria Bruun ** Fannie Klint ** Solveig Honore ** Mathilde Lerentzen ** Emily Piercy ** Roselil Hansen ** Fritjof Nørretranders ** Sally Risell ** Vera Kwederis

Other

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, mixing *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

- mastering on tracks 2, 6, 7, 14 *

Ari Marcopoulos Ari Marcopoulos (born Aristos) is an American self-taught photographer, adventurer and film artist. Born in the Netherlands, he is best known for presenting work showcasing elusive subcultures, including artists, snowboarders and musicians. He liv ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Vlado Meller Vlado Meller is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz, metal, dance, opera, Broadway, and classica ...

- mastering *

M/M Paris M/M (Paris) is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak (born 1967) and Michael Amzalag (born 1968), established in Paris in 1992. M/M are best known for their art direction and collaborations with musicians ( Björk, Madon ...

album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...

art and design *Charlie Stavish -

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing *Mark Santangelo - recording assistant *Alan Mintz and

Will Botwin Will Botwin (born July 23, 1958) is an American talent manager who represents many prominent musicians. Botwin was educated at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. While at college, he worked as a college promotion representative for Capitol ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

*Noah Goldstein and Ben Liscio - mixing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:No More Stories 2009 albums Mew (band) albums Albums produced by Rich Costey