This is a Random Album Generator.
One album a day.
From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Frengers: Not Quite Friends But Not Quite Strangers

Mew

2003

Frengers: Not Quite Friends But Not Quite Strangers

Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Frengers, alternatively titled as Frengers: Not Quite Friends, But Not Quite Strangers, is the third studio album by Danish alternative rock band Mew. It was released on 7 April 2003. The title is a portmanteau of the words "friend" and "stranger". A frenger is a person who is "not quite a friend but not quite a stranger" according to the album's accompanying booklet. Six of the album's ten tracks were previously included on Mew's first two albums A Triumph for Man and Half the World Is Watching Me, both of which saw only limited release, but were rerecorded for Frengers. The other four are original recordings. The song "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years" features vocals from Swedish singer Stina Nordenstam and "Symmetry" features vocals from 14-year-old Becky Jarrett from Georgia, US. The Japanese version of Frengers also includes the re-recordings of two more earlier songs, "I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (For You)" and "Wherever".

Wikipedia

Rating

3.2

Votes

90

Genres

  • Rock
  • Pop

Submitter

View

Reviews

Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!
Sort by: Top Date
May 22 2025
View Author
3

Grerrible. Not quite great but not quite terrible by Mew.

👍
May 05 2025
View Author
5

Danish indie from just before landfill indie swept away all the good stuff

👍
May 06 2025
View Author
5

This band was completely unknown to me. And too bad they are splitting up, because I LOVED this music! Very atmospheric and dreamy, but some heavier parts too. The vocals are amazing. And the complete sound of it just touched me in a way I can't really describe

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
5

Yooooooo who did this? Danish band lets goo Kinda a 4 album, but comforting sounds is a straight 10 5

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
5

Never heard of them but I loved this so much, thank you for adding it!

👍
May 05 2025
View Author
4

I had no idea what any of this was but it was really good. Mix of death cab for cutie, shoegaze, and maybe a little beach house. Comforting sounds was my fav.

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
4

Awesome surprise to see this band on here! Fantastic shoegazey indie rock from Denmark that stays consistently beautiful throughout. Probably a really shitty comparison, but it sounds a bit like if you told the Sigur Rós guys to do a Radiohead album. "Comforting Sounds" is an all-timer.

👍
May 05 2025
View Author
3

The title is pretty stupid so that's a poor start. The music I found to be pretty middle of the road pop with a lot of faux-orchestral vibes and lyrically it has a bit of that Scandanavian ESL thing. I didn't hate it but thought it merely OK.

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
5

Really liked this! Some great songs from Denmark that I’m glad to have here.

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
5

I really loved listening to this!

👍
May 12 2025
View Author
5

Never heard of these guys. A great recommendation.

👍
May 06 2025
View Author
4

Nice choice, thoroughly enjoyed it

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
4

Great indie rock album. I’m stunned I never heared of Mew. I listened to the whole album thinking it was a female singer. So I’m impressed by the vocal range of the frontman. I do not think all material is strong, but I was captured by the second half of the album (She Came Home for Christmas, Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed and Comforting Sounds). Certainly the last two are amazing.

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
4

Very nice. Reminds me a lot of Death Cab for Cutie and other indie bands from the early oughts. 4 stars.

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
4

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Am I wry? No, Snow brigade, Behind the drapes, She came home for christmas, She spider

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
4

This kept falling in the background and I would forget I was listening to it. But I still enjoyed it.

👍
May 18 2025
View Author
4

There's always something about the Nordic sound- this is really good and is like a rockier Sigr Ros? Alternative music. Det er meget godt!!

👍
Jun 01 2025
View Author
4

A great record! Never listened to this one out of their albums for some reason, so it’s good to hear it now and see that Mew made great records from the go

👍
Jun 09 2025
View Author
4

It’s pretty good and I’m not sure how it’s flown under my radar for so long. Definitely has “Ben Gibbard” starts a Prog band feel to it.

👍
Jun 17 2025
View Author
4

Started out fine and then really grew on me. Had a long chat with Claude about She Came Home for Christmas. Interesting album, nothing I ever would have heard otherwise, good share.

👍
May 04 2025
View Author
3

I have no idea what to expect from this. Let's just go. I dunno how to describe this. It's kinda like post rock, but follows more usual song structures. Not always, but it isn't like 15min drawn out dirges. Singing is neither here nor there. 3/5.

👍
May 06 2025
View Author
3

I’d never listened to Mew before, so this was a fun introduction. Not every track jumped out at me, but the general personality and sense of genuine fun radiating from each track made this an enjoyable listen. I see the list as a way of uncovering musical blind spots so this was a great add imo - I never knew this kind of Panchiko-esque metal-adjacent rock was being made so early into the aughts.

👍
May 07 2025
View Author
3

Enjoyable. Subtle but strong musicianship. The vocals didn't quite land for me about half the time. Fave Songs: Behind the Drapes; Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years; She Came Home for Christmas; Comforting Sounds; Symmetry; Am I Wry? No

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
3

Pleasant if unremarkable. Not nearly enough pokemon references for me

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
3

A delightful spacey Death Cab for Cutie

👍
May 11 2025
View Author
3

It was pleasant enough, but ultimately, the title is better than the songs themselves.

👍
Jun 08 2025
View Author
3

Ok so i have a weird Mandela Effect false memory of listening to Mew’s 2005 album (Mew and the glass handed kites) as part of this project - but I have triple checked and it’s definitely not on either the main list or the user-submitted list, so not sure what happened there. Anyway, both albums are decent but nothing too memorable. The first few tracks of this are quite bold and hint at something majestic to come but the other songs didn’t quite hit the same heights, and it fizzled out after the slightly creepy kid singing

👍
May 08 2025
View Author
2

An alright indie pop album by this band Mew (pokemon fans?). It was like a less poppy sound than walk the moon while having stronger guitar presence and lyrically not as glimmer pop. Overall I still found this album hard to enjoy as all of the songs missed the mark for me. 5.3/10

👍
Jun 11 2025
View Author
2

Halfway through and this is a down beat indie record like a lot of the rest. I don't have a good ear for this genre and i don't think it has improved after getting through the project. This sounds so very generic. Comforting Sounds is like a downbeat Killers track.

👍