#songoftheday / VIDEO: mew: “The Night Believer” (Feat. Frengers)

Mew are my favorite proggy band.  When I hear most prog, it seems like it’s more about being technically proficient and showing off your skills with your instruments than writing actually inspired songs.  Instead of writing a heartfelt song and making it epic and allowing room for some soloing, you just write the odd music and think up some lyrics and a generic melody later…  I realize this isn’t the case with all prog artists.  Muse write fantastic songs and still experiment in a real prog way, often reminding me of Queen.  But so much of prog just fails to do anything for me emotionally and it tends to be inaccessible.  mew, however, never fail to tug at my heart-strings.  They can be weird and come up with long instrumental parts but those parts feel necessary to move the narrative of the songs forward, not like they’re there so someone can do a six minute, self-indulgent bass solo.

So, yes, I love mew.  And sugary sweet song “The Night Believer” is one of their songs that isn’t particularly proggy at all, so you should adore it even if you generally dislike prog more than me.  Give it a listen — it’s even kind of silly and might just make you smile.

Youtube info: