Getting into the Danish band Mew is an enlightening experience, and those first encountering the group with their latest album, No More Stories, are in for a treat. Gone are the pretentious, gloomy tunes that made their previous album such a love-it-or-hate-it affair, and instead listeners get an album full of upbeat, happy pop-rock with just enough innovation, originality, and experimentation to keep things interesting. Fans of the band’s previous album may be in for a shock to the system, as this album could not be further from the fear-laden tunes that made up Mew and And The Glass Handed Kites.

With song titles such as “Hawaiian Dream," “Hawaii," and “Beach," it’s easy to write this disc off as simply another shallow summer album, but there’s a real amount of depth to No More Stories... just below the surface. Throughout every song is a reminder that - beneath all the island instruments, sprightly cymbals and high-pitched vocals - for every piece of good there’s also pain. In one of the album’s most cheery-sounding songs, “Beach," the upbeat, surf rock sound are contradicted by lyrics that remind us both of the most beautiful moments of our lives, and of just how fleeting they can be - how everything can fall apart when “[we] zigged when [we] should have zagged”. This lyrical dichotomy of beauty versus the transitory is also the subject of the album’s mid-disc epic, “Cartoons and Macrame Wounds," where the narrator tells us that their lover “drew cartoons, so playful” but that this person also ran away, with the lament “Honestly see, they're like you and me/ frozen when we start/ we cannot help it/ easy to destruct/ taken apart.”

This habit of combining happy orchestration mixed in with somber lyrics continue throughout the album, with Mew’s lyrical prowess shining beneath beautiful, sunny music, which hits its stride with the album’s climactic tune, “Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy." It begins with an chorus intro reminiscent of the greatness of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” or Wolf Parade’s “I Believe in Anything”, and moves into a tune chronicling self-doubt, self-loathing, and the journey of confidence through a sea of doubt.

The album is just bursting with plenty of poetic jewels, but with so much feedback and cheery, high-pitched vocals, it can be difficult to piece everything together, or even hear what's being sung. The digging and is worth the trouble, however, because there lies much profound, thoughtful material on No More Stories... that’s easy to miss on an initial listen.

Recommended Tracks: “Beach”, “Cartoons and Macrame Wounds”, “Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy”