Mew

Forward, it’s enticing -- but in reverse, it’s sublime. Not just “New Terrain,” the vocal-looping and tape-rewinding opener of Mew’s fourth album, but the Danish psych-rockers’ songwriting path. On 2005’s And the Glass Handed Kites, the group braided moaning Death Cab vocals through labyrinthine Sigur Rós rock, but here they set more finite boundaries: The lyrics are less opaque (kettle-drum-laden “Hawaii” is fatalist, not fancy-free), and the dance-pop pulse is snappily straight ahead. But following a few more rules makes Mew no less exhilarating.

By Stacey Anderson