2005 has been a great year so far for Scandinavian music, with The Raveonettes, Magnet, Hush, Leaves, Robert Post and Lisa Miskovsky all releasing great albums. And here is one that possibly tops the lot of them, from Danish madmen Mew, and as you can tell from the title, And The Glass Handed Kites, it is rather surreal to say the least...

After two albums in their native country, Mew were snapped up by Sony and released Frengers to much acclaim two years ago.

Now they are back with a strange kind of concept album seemingly mostly about frontman Jonas Bjerre's nightmares and what a strange world he seems to inhabit in his sleep. Quite what any of it means, only Sigmund Freud could work out, let alone the album title, which must be one of the strangest of the year, but it makes for an interesting musical journey.

Mew have already released two of the best singles of 2005, Apocalypso and Special, and both are on here sounding just as impressive as part of Bjerre's surreal canvas of music about death. They have tried to make an album that sounds like one long song and right from instrumental Circuitry Of The Wolf, it can be quite difficult to work out where one track ends and another begins.

Why Are You Looking Grave? features Dinosaur Jr's J. Mascis on guest vocals, but is actually one of the weaker songs on the album, although it is still a pretty decent example of their bizarre 80s synth-pop meets 90s alt-rock meets 70s glam-rock stylings. If you can imagine Muse covering early Queen songs in the style of Soft Cell, you still won't even be close to what Mew sound like.

The album reaches its peak with the 1-2-3 of Apocalypso, Special and then The Zookeeper's Boy, which will surely follow them in being released as a single. It's probably too weird to be a hit, but like the rest of And The Glass Handed Kites, it is never less than interesting and it all makes for one of the very best albums of the year.