"Shannon," I told myself at the beginning of January, "Don't get so caught up in new releases this year. You know it'll only drive you crazy in the long run. Don't do it." Flash forward three months and I've somehow got 20 albums to talk about. Listen, I can't help it if seemingly every single one of my favorites is conspiring to release...
Mew's 2005 release And the Glass Handed Kites is known as their breakout album for a reason. While its predecessor, Frengers, contained plenty of driving, eccentric pop songs with occasional prog-rock leanings, And the Glass Handed Kites dials the ambition and scope up to eleven. I feel like prog-rock, no matter how technically well-done it is, is always vaguely embarrassing and cheesy by design. Mew know...
For me, personally, there are two distinct types of nostalgic music. First, there's the music I liked when I was a kid, which was either radio country of questionable quality or radio pop of questionable quality: it's fun to hear again every now and then, but it's not exactly anything I can return to frequently or still find the magic inside. Then there's...
