WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.859 I want you to just mentally transport yourself 00:00:03.859 --> 00:00:06.480 back for a second to the year 2000. Oh, boy. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:09.300 Right? Yeah. Y2K has just passed. The world didn't 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.500 end. And we are sitting on this really fascinating 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:14.259 precipice in the music industry. Yeah. It was 00:00:14.259 --> 00:00:17.079 a weird transition period. Totally. Because Napster 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:19.800 is bubbling up. Digital piracy is starting to 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.559 scare the suits. And yet the era of the physical 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:26.679 CD is arguably right at its absolute peak just 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:29.079 before the decline. It was a time when the physical 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:30.879 object, you know, the plastic disc, the booklet, 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:33.280 the artwork, that was still the primary way we 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:35.520 experienced music. It wasn't just a file on a 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:37.859 phone. Exactly. You held it. You studied the 00:00:37.859 --> 00:00:40.460 liner notes. And in Denmark, amidst this whole 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:43.100 shifting landscape, an alternative rock band 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:47.060 called Mew decides to basically double down on 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:49.020 that physical format. They really did. They aren't 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:51.039 just releasing an album. they're constructing 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.320 a puzzle box. That is the perfect way to describe 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:56.600 it. So today, we are doing a deep dive into Mew's 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:59.759 Pivotal Year 2000 release, an album called Half 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.320 the World is Watching Me. This is such a great 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:05.120 topic to dig into because this album is essentially 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:07.439 a missing link in rock history. It really is. 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:10.180 Most people, if they know Mew, they know them 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:13.500 for their 2003 international breakout. Frengers. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:16.260 Right, Frengers. But half the world is watching 00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:18.480 me is the laboratory where Frengers was actually 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.939 built. It's the prototype. Exactly. But what 00:01:20.939 --> 00:01:23.200 makes this deep dive so compelling for you and 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.700 me to talk about today is that we aren't just 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:28.129 talking about the songs. No, the songs are almost 00:01:28.129 --> 00:01:29.989 just half the story. Right. We're talking about 00:01:29.989 --> 00:01:33.049 an artifact that had actual secrets, literal 00:01:33.049 --> 00:01:35.689 hidden audio that you had to know how to unlock. 00:01:36.129 --> 00:01:38.170 Shifting track lists. Shifting track lists, yeah. 00:01:38.469 --> 00:01:40.569 And a production history that involves one of 00:01:40.569 --> 00:01:43.969 the most unlikely pairings in music history. 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:47.290 It's a story about a band taking absolute control 00:01:47.290 --> 00:01:50.650 of their destiny and their business. So let's 00:01:50.650 --> 00:01:55.609 set the scene. May 4th, 2000. Mew releases this 00:01:55.609 --> 00:01:58.209 album. But they don't do it the easy way. Not 00:01:58.209 --> 00:02:00.069 at all. They don't sign a standard deal for this 00:02:00.069 --> 00:02:03.069 one. They go completely DIY. That is the first 00:02:03.069 --> 00:02:06.370 major point we have to look at here. They released 00:02:06.370 --> 00:02:09.650 it on their own label, which, by the way, had 00:02:09.650 --> 00:02:11.990 arguably the best name in the history of record 00:02:11.990 --> 00:02:15.569 labels. Oh, it's so good. Evil Office. Evil Office. 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:17.729 I mean, it sounds like a frantic punk band, not 00:02:17.729 --> 00:02:20.870 an indie label. It does. But it signaled something 00:02:20.870 --> 00:02:23.969 very serious for them. They had released their 00:02:23.969 --> 00:02:27.750 debut album, A Triumph for Man, in 1997. Right. 00:02:27.949 --> 00:02:30.710 And that was on a standard label called Xlibris. 00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:34.349 But for this sophomore effort, they wanted total 00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:37.509 control. Which makes sense. So they recorded 00:02:37.509 --> 00:02:40.969 it between February and August of 1999, and they 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:43.599 just put it out themselves. That is a massive 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:45.919 gamble. Huge. You're a young band. You're trying 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:48.340 to break through. And instead of leveraging a 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:50.800 label's marketing budget and distribution, you're 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:52.819 doing it on your own. It was a high wire act. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:54.719 And because of that independence, the scarcity 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:56.819 was very real. Let's talk about the numbers, 00:02:57.060 --> 00:02:58.780 because they are shocking. They only pressed 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:01.139 about 5 ,000 copies of the original release. 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:04.560 5 ,000. That is nothing. In the year 2000, that 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:07.360 was microscopic. If you managed to buy one of 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.340 those original discs, you were holding a genuinely 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:13.139 rare artifact. You really were. But here's the 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:17.599 thing. Usually when a band goes DIY with a tiny 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:20.419 print run like that, you expect the production 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:23.080 quality to be a little... Crunchy. Crunchy, yeah. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.599 Lo -fi. Garage band energy. Right. You expect 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:27.479 it to sound like it was recorded in a basement 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.139 with egg cartons taped to the walls. Exactly. 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:33.439 But half the world is watching me sounded massive. 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:36.139 It sounded symphonic. And that is entirely because 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:38.340 of who they hired to help them. OK, yes. Yeah. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:39.960 This is the part of the source material that 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:41.979 made me do a double take. It's the best part. 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.860 I'm looking at the liner notes. Produced by Mew, 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:48.699 yes. That makes sense. Yeah. But co -produced 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:51.860 and engineered by Fleming Rasmussen. And Morton 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:54.039 Sedenius, too. But Rasmussen is the headline 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:56.259 there. Does that name ring a bell? it rings a 00:03:56.259 --> 00:03:58.939 very loud, very distorted bell. Fleming Rasmussen 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:01.479 is the guy who engineered Metallica's Ride the 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:04.199 Lightning. And produced Master of Puppets. And 00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:06.539 justice for all. Precisely. So just so I have 00:04:06.539 --> 00:04:08.419 this straight for the listener, you have Mew. 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:12.419 A band known for Jonas Beer's really high -pitched, 00:04:12.699 --> 00:04:16.459 angelic, almost choir boy vocals. Very dreamy. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.279 Dreamy synthesizers. And they hired the guy famous 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:21.980 for capturing the crunchiest, most aggressive 00:04:21.980 --> 00:04:24.480 thrash metal guitars in history. It sounds like 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.480 a total mismatch, doesn't it? Like mixing oil 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:29.279 and water. It does. But this is the absolute 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.759 key to understanding Muse sound. How so? Well, 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:35.560 think about it. If they had hired a typical indie 00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:38.099 pop producer, the album might have just flowed 00:04:37.930 --> 00:04:39.889 it away into the clouds. It would have been too 00:04:39.889 --> 00:04:43.250 soft. Way too soft. Too ethereal. Rasmussen brought 00:04:43.250 --> 00:04:45.290 that metal discipline to the rhythm section. 00:04:45.430 --> 00:04:47.269 Okay, that makes a lot of sense actually. Right. 00:04:47.629 --> 00:04:50.509 If you listen to Silas Utke -Grey Juergensen's 00:04:50.509 --> 00:04:53.050 drumming on this album, it's not standard indie 00:04:53.050 --> 00:04:55.829 pop drumming. It's punchy. It's very precise. 00:04:55.889 --> 00:04:58.209 It has real weight to it. And the same goes for 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.810 Johann Vollert on bass. It's driving. And Bo 00:05:00.810 --> 00:05:02.649 Madsen's guitars aren't just strumming. They 00:05:02.649 --> 00:05:05.310 have these really sharp angles and edges. So 00:05:05.310 --> 00:05:08.319 Rasmussen essentially anchored the dreaminess 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:11.319 with a heavy metal skeleton. That is the perfect 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.199 way to put it. Too much sugar, not enough salt 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:17.819 otherwise. Exactly. And that heavy skeleton allowed 00:05:17.819 --> 00:05:20.379 the band to layer all these other crazy textures 00:05:20.379 --> 00:05:23.220 on top without the songs collapsing under their 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.420 own weight. Because the instrumentation is wild. 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:28.100 It's not just guitar, bass, and drums. Not at 00:05:28.100 --> 00:05:30.160 all. You look at the credits, and you've got 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.779 Tim Christensen credited on the mellotron. The 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:35.300 mellotron is crucial. It gives you that vintage, 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:38.339 slightly eerie, orchestral wash. It sounds like 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:40.259 a haunted flute section. Yes. And then you've 00:05:40.259 --> 00:05:44.019 got actual horns. Mads Heine and Casper Tranberg 00:05:44.019 --> 00:05:46.660 are on there. You've got close Nielsen on synthesizers? 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:50.279 It's a very dense, heavily textured landscape. 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:52.639 And that texture really served the songwriting, 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:55.259 which we see in how they rolled it out. Let's 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:57.819 talk about the singles. They released King Christian 00:05:57.819 --> 00:06:00.519 as a single first in February of 2000, so before 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:02.939 the album even dropped. Setting the stage. Then 00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:05.939 her voice is beyond her years in June. Which, 00:06:06.019 --> 00:06:07.680 by the way, is a title that feels like a short 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:10.860 story all on its own. It implies a duet, or at 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.740 least a dialogue. which really fits the complexity 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:16.019 of the song itself. And Steena Nordenstam is 00:06:16.019 --> 00:06:18.759 actually on that track providing those duet vocals. 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:22.279 Right. And then finally Micah in January of 2001. 00:06:22.899 --> 00:06:26.120 So they had a solid rollout. But despite these 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:29.139 singles, I think we both know there is one song 00:06:29.139 --> 00:06:31.899 on this album that defines the entire project. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.459 It is the absolute elephant in the room. The 00:06:34.459 --> 00:06:36.660 closer. Comforting sounds. Comforting sounds. 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:39.569 It's nearly nine minutes long. 8 minutes and 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:42.870 44 seconds to be exact. Placing a 9 minute song 00:06:42.870 --> 00:06:45.649 as the final track on a sophomore indie release 00:06:45.649 --> 00:06:48.750 is a massive statement of intent. It says we 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:50.629 aren't just trying to get on the radio, we are 00:06:50.629 --> 00:06:53.470 composing. I love that track so much because 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:56.660 it ignores all the rules of pop music. completely 00:06:56.660 --> 00:06:58.600 ignores them. It doesn't really have a chorus 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.860 in the traditional sense. It just builds. It 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:03.800 starts with this very quiet, lonely piano and 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.420 vocal. Just Jonas. And by the end, it's this 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:09.160 absolute wall of sound. It's a crescendo that 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.560 lasts for, what, five minutes? Easily five minutes 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:13.720 of just building and layering. It's a structural 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:15.920 pillar for the whole album. But here is where 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.740 we get into the puzzle box aspect you mentioned 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:21.240 earlier. Yes. The best part. Because the album 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:24.240 ends with comforting sounds. The listener sits 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.829 there. totally emotionally drained from this 00:07:26.829 --> 00:07:30.029 nine -minute epic. The CD player stops. Or does 00:07:30.029 --> 00:07:32.870 it? Well, on a normal CD player, yes, it stops. 00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:36.189 But Mew did something with the physical format 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:39.829 of that original Evil Office release that is 00:07:39.829 --> 00:07:42.529 almost lost to history now. This is such a great 00:07:42.529 --> 00:07:44.670 piece of music trivia. It's my favorite part 00:07:44.670 --> 00:07:47.670 of this entire deep dive, the hidden experience. 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:50.290 So if you look at the track list, there is a 00:07:50.290 --> 00:07:52.709 song called Ending. Which is a very fitting name 00:07:52.709 --> 00:07:55.300 for a song. It is, but if you looked at the back 00:07:55.300 --> 00:07:58.439 of the physical CD case, ending is listed. But 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:00.519 good luck finding it by just pressing the next 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.759 button on your stereo. Because it wasn't at the 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:04.899 end. No. It was at the beginning. Correct, but 00:08:04.899 --> 00:08:07.000 not as track one. No, that would be too simple. 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.040 It was hidden in the pre -gap. We need to explain 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.019 this because I feel like anyone under a certain 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.180 age is going to be very confused about what a 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:15.399 pre -gap even is. Oh, absolutely. What is a pre 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:18.560 -gap? Okay, so... The red book standard for CDs. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.519 The technical rule book that defines how a CD 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:25.120 works. It says that track one starts at time 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.379 zero. Zero minutes, zero seconds. Makes sense. 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:31.339 But the laser in the CD player actually starts 00:08:31.339 --> 00:08:33.259 reading the disc a little bit before that to 00:08:33.259 --> 00:08:36.259 get up to speed. Just a buffer. Right. And usually 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:38.580 that space is just two seconds of pure silence. 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:41.120 But technically, you can encode audio there. 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:45.059 So to hear this song ending. What did you physically 00:08:45.059 --> 00:08:48.559 have to do? You had to put the CD in, wait for 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:50.899 it to spin up, and start playing track one, which 00:08:50.899 --> 00:08:54.279 is, am I right? No. And then as soon as it started, 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:57.019 you had to physically hold down the rewind button 00:08:57.019 --> 00:08:59.820 on your player. You had to rewind past zero. 00:08:59.879 --> 00:09:02.779 Exactly. Which feels wrong. You watched the digital 00:09:02.779 --> 00:09:05.419 counter go negative, negative zero zero five, 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:08.120 negative zero ten. And you had to go back about 00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:10.620 two minutes? Yep. It feels like breaking the 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.919 machine. I remember doing this with a different 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:14.919 album back in the day, I think at Queens of the 00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:18.360 Stone Age record, and it felt illicit. Yes. Like 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:20.360 you were hacking the hardware. It made the listener 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:22.860 an active participant. You had to physically 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:26.039 work to uncover the music. And there was a visual 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.980 clue for this too, right? There was. A purple 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.820 circle printed on the physical disc itself indicated 00:09:31.820 --> 00:09:34.220 where that hidden track lived. But the coolest 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:36.759 part isn't just that it was hidden. It's why 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:39.129 it was hidden. This wasn't just a throwaway demo 00:09:39.129 --> 00:09:41.090 they forgot about. Right, it connected to the 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:43.169 very concept of the album. This is the stroke 00:09:43.169 --> 00:09:47.320 of genius. The track is called Ending. But it's 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:49.559 technically before the beginning. Because it's 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:51.879 negative time. Exactly. And if you listen to 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:55.659 the final 11 seconds of ending, they are completely 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:58.580 identical to the first 11 seconds of track one, 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:00.879 Am I Right? No. So if you could theoretically 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:03.299 play them back to back. It creates a perfect 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:06.200 seamless loop. The ending feeds directly into 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.600 the beginning. The album becomes a moebius strip. 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:11.159 It suggests that the music never actually stops. 00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:14.279 It just cycles forever. That is so conceptually 00:10:14.279 --> 00:10:17.720 heavy for a debut indie rock release. Well, a 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:19.899 sophomore release, but their first major statement 00:10:19.899 --> 00:10:22.100 on their own label. It challenges the linear 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:24.559 way we consume stuff. Yeah. We want to start 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.409 a middle and an end. Mew gave us a circle. And 00:10:28.409 --> 00:10:30.610 that is something you simply cannot replicate 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:33.370 on modern platforms. No, you really can't. You 00:10:33.370 --> 00:10:36.230 can't rewind past zero on a streaming service. 00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:39.649 That specific artistic statement is forever tied 00:10:39.649 --> 00:10:42.470 to the physical object of the CD. It's a tragedy 00:10:42.470 --> 00:10:44.509 that we lost that interactive element. It is 00:10:44.509 --> 00:10:47.970 a bit sad. But speaking of losing things... The 00:10:47.970 --> 00:10:50.210 album didn't stay in this puzzle box form for 00:10:50.210 --> 00:10:52.669 long, did it? No, it didn't. As we said, they 00:10:52.669 --> 00:10:55.769 only made 5 ,000 of those original Evil Office 00:10:55.769 --> 00:10:58.389 copies. And the band was gaining traction. A 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:00.009 lot of traction. They needed to get the music 00:11:00.009 --> 00:11:02.789 to more people, so they reissued the album. And 00:11:02.789 --> 00:11:05.129 when they did, they made some pretty major changes. 00:11:05.309 --> 00:11:08.830 Very significant changes. The first reissue changed 00:11:08.830 --> 00:11:11.129 the visual presentation slightly. The cover art. 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:13.889 Right, the cover art changed. The text got this 00:11:13.889 --> 00:11:16.529 white border around it. The physical disc itself 00:11:16.529 --> 00:11:19.129 changed from from being white to just being standard 00:11:19.129 --> 00:11:21.450 reflective silver. But the biggest change was 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:24.370 the audio. The track list. They removed the hidden 00:11:24.370 --> 00:11:26.590 track ending. Oh, that hurts. They broke the 00:11:26.590 --> 00:11:28.409 loop. They completely broke the loop. Why would 00:11:28.409 --> 00:11:30.509 they do that? Well, to be fair to them, the pre 00:11:30.509 --> 00:11:32.990 -gap trick was causing actual technical issues 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:35.830 with some CD players. Oh, really? Yeah, it was 00:11:35.830 --> 00:11:38.350 a bit glitchy. Some older players just couldn't 00:11:38.350 --> 00:11:40.889 handle reading backwards into the negative index. 00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:43.940 It would freeze the machine. So the hack was 00:11:43.940 --> 00:11:46.779 a little too hacky. Exactly. So in exchange for 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:49.759 losing ending, they gave the fans a trade -off. 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:52.840 Two new tracks. She Came Home for Christmas. 00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:56.039 And I Should Have Been a Sincy for You. Now, 00:11:56.059 --> 00:11:59.879 She Came Home for Christmas is a massive, massive 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.320 song for them. It is one of their most beloved 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:05.500 tracks. It became an absolute staple of their 00:12:05.500 --> 00:12:07.899 live shows. So listeners got a pretty good trade 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:11.090 -off. You lost the secret conceptual loop. But 00:12:11.090 --> 00:12:15.409 you gained two very strong, very distinct songs. 00:12:15.509 --> 00:12:18.610 It made the album feel a bit more standard, a 00:12:18.610 --> 00:12:20.610 bit more like a commercial product. It was growing 00:12:20.610 --> 00:12:22.649 up. It was getting ready for the international 00:12:22.649 --> 00:12:25.309 stage. Exactly. And that brings us to the second 00:12:25.309 --> 00:12:28.250 major reissue. Fast forward to 2007. OK, so by 00:12:28.250 --> 00:12:31.210 2007, You is huge. A Fringer's been out for four 00:12:31.210 --> 00:12:34.009 years. And the follow -up to that and the Glass 00:12:34.009 --> 00:12:36.429 -Handed Kites is out. They are an established 00:12:36.429 --> 00:12:39.309 global act. So why go back to this year 2000 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:41.620 album? Purely for the collectors and the hardcore 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:45.120 fans, this reissue dropped on September 4th, 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.639 2007, and it included a whole bonus disc. Nine 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.940 extra tracks. And if you are a fan of the creative 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:53.080 process, getting to peek behind the curtain, 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:56.740 this disc is an absolute gold mine. I was looking 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:58.980 at the track list for this bonus disc, and it 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:02.090 is fascinating. First off, you have a studio 00:13:02.090 --> 00:13:04.549 outtake of a song called Half the World is Watching 00:13:04.549 --> 00:13:06.490 Me. Which is deeply ironic, right? Because the 00:13:06.490 --> 00:13:08.549 title track wasn't actually on the original album. 00:13:08.649 --> 00:13:10.909 It's the classic Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy 00:13:10.909 --> 00:13:13.210 Move. The song isn't on the album of the same 00:13:13.210 --> 00:13:16.210 name. Exactly. But the real gems on this bonus 00:13:16.210 --> 00:13:19.009 disc are the demos. They show the band in a really 00:13:19.009 --> 00:13:22.830 raw state. You have a Cubase demo of 156, a demo 00:13:22.830 --> 00:13:26.299 called Quietly. But my absolute favorite detail 00:13:26.299 --> 00:13:29.360 on this entire deep dive, out of everything we've 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:30.639 talked about. I think I know which one you mean. 00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:32.580 It's one of the demo titles. I had to read it 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:34.159 three times to make sure my notes weren't wrong. 00:13:34.379 --> 00:13:36.460 The demo for comforting sounds. Comforting sounds 00:13:36.460 --> 00:13:39.860 in parentheses. Do I look Puerto Rican? Yes. 00:13:40.500 --> 00:13:42.539 What is happening there? I have no idea. You 00:13:42.539 --> 00:13:45.399 have this deeply emotional eight minute epic 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:48.980 about comfort and longing and human connection. 00:13:49.539 --> 00:13:52.600 And the working title in the studio is... Do 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.120 I look Puerto Rican? It's hilarious, but it really 00:13:56.120 --> 00:13:59.539 humanizes them. It does. We tend to project this 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:03.519 very specific image onto art rock bands. We think 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:07.039 of them as these very serious brooding figures. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.279 Oh, you're sitting in dark rooms contemplating 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.919 deep philosophy. Wearing black turtlenecks and 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:14.440 staring out of rainy windows in Copenhagen. Exactly. 00:14:14.820 --> 00:14:16.899 But this title proves they are just four guys 00:14:16.899 --> 00:14:19.460 in a studio. Probably totally sleep deprived. 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:22.100 Making inside jokes. Naming files whatever weird 00:14:22.100 --> 00:14:23.960 thing pops into their heads just to make each 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:26.299 other laugh. It's a great reminder that the ultimate 00:14:26.299 --> 00:14:30.019 masterpiece usually starts as a very messy, stupidly 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:32.379 named file on a computer. It creates such a nice 00:14:32.379 --> 00:14:34.559 contrast. You have the super high art of the 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.279 hidden pre -gap loop and the super lowbrow humor 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.759 of the demo titles. It's all part of the band's 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:42.240 DNA. So looking at the big picture of all these 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.779 sources, how does this album fit into their overall 00:14:44.779 --> 00:14:47.559 legacy? You called it a laboratory earlier. I 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:49.299 think that's honestly the best way to view it. 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:51.799 Let's compare the track lists. If you look at 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:53.460 the track list of Half the World is Watching 00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:56.100 Me, and then look at the track list of Fringers, 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.720 which came out three years later on a major label. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:00.980 There is a huge amount of overlap. Massive overlap. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:05.649 Am I wry? No. 156. Comforting sounds. She came 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:07.850 home for Christmas. These are the heavy hitters. 00:15:08.009 --> 00:15:10.690 The songs that made their career. Right. Fringers 00:15:10.690 --> 00:15:12.809 is often considered their debut by the international 00:15:12.809 --> 00:15:15.769 market because it was their first global release. 00:15:16.090 --> 00:15:19.090 But it was essentially a polished, re -recorded 00:15:19.090 --> 00:15:22.049 best of album from their first two indie records. 00:15:22.370 --> 00:15:24.570 Half the world is watching me is where those 00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:27.370 iconic songs were actually forged. So if you're 00:15:27.370 --> 00:15:30.809 a Mew fan, This album is the Rosetta Stone. It 00:15:30.809 --> 00:15:33.470 truly is. It's the proof of concept. They proved 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:35.570 to themselves and to the industry that they could 00:15:35.570 --> 00:15:38.789 write arena -sized anthems on a DIY budget. They 00:15:38.789 --> 00:15:41.669 proved they could balance the crunch metal influence 00:15:41.669 --> 00:15:45.090 of Fleming Rasmussen with their own dream pop 00:15:45.090 --> 00:15:47.330 melodies. And the critics in Denmark noticed 00:15:47.330 --> 00:15:49.929 right away. Gaffa magazine gave it a prominent 00:15:49.929 --> 00:15:52.750 rating, right? They did. And Gaffa is the big 00:15:52.750 --> 00:15:55.009 music publication in Denmark. It's like their 00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:57.879 Rolling Stone. So the fact that they were heavily 00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:02.019 covering and rating a self -released album on 00:16:02.019 --> 00:16:05.000 an indie label called Evil Office? It shows that 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.679 Mew wasn't being ignored. They were already local 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:09.940 heroes before they ever became global stars. 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:11.980 And clearly the demand was there. Otherwise, 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:14.139 they wouldn't have needed to reissue it not once, 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:17.360 but twice. Absolutely. It went from a 5 ,000 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:21.559 copy local rarity to a foundational text of Scandinavian 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:23.720 rock music. I want to go back to the idea of 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:26.340 the mission we started with today. We really 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:29.539 wanted to see how this album became this complex, 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:32.120 evolving artifact. And we definitely saw the 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:33.960 evolution. But I think we've also found that 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.659 its story is almost a tragedy of technology. 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:39.519 How do you mean? Well, the music survives. We 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:41.220 can go listen to comforting sounds right now 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:43.600 on any streaming platform. Sure. But the object 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:46.580 itself, the puzzle box, it's broken now. Ah, 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:48.340 I see what you mean. We can't do the real wine 00:16:48.340 --> 00:16:50.740 trick. We can't experience the loop naturally 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:53.789 the way it was designed. It raises a really interesting 00:16:53.789 --> 00:16:56.610 philosophical question about what an album actually 00:16:56.610 --> 00:16:58.629 is. Right. Is it just the audio aids hitting 00:16:58.629 --> 00:17:01.669 your ear? Or is it the ritual of playing it? 00:17:02.110 --> 00:17:04.349 You clearly thought the ritual mattered. They 00:17:04.349 --> 00:17:06.390 designed the silence. They designed the gap. 00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:08.690 They forced you to physically interact with the 00:17:08.690 --> 00:17:11.809 machine. And in the age of streaming, we have 00:17:11.809 --> 00:17:14.950 removed all of that friction. Everything is instant. 00:17:15.049 --> 00:17:17.089 Everything is just one tap away. But in removing 00:17:17.089 --> 00:17:20.089 the friction, we've also removed the mystery. 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:23.940 There are no secret rooms in Spotify. There's 00:17:23.940 --> 00:17:26.420 no negative zero on Apple Music. It's a trade 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:29.319 -off. Access versus discovery. We have access 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.299 to basically all recorded music, but we discover 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:34.180 less of it on our own. We don't have to work 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:36.720 for it. No, we just get fed algorithms. So here 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.799 is my challenge to you, the listener, based on 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:42.319 everything we dug into today. Oh, I like a challenge. 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.799 If you can, go find a way to listen to the end 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.539 of the song ending and the beginning of Am I 00:17:48.539 --> 00:17:51.410 Rye? No back -to -back. Even if you have to cue 00:17:51.410 --> 00:17:53.950 it up manually on a playlist and try to crossfade 00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:55.890 it? Recreate the loop for yourself. Recreate 00:17:55.890 --> 00:17:58.289 the loop. Try to hear that circle exactly the 00:17:58.289 --> 00:18:00.859 way the band intended it. back in the year 2000. 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.839 I promise you, it completely changes the way 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:05.940 you hear the beginning of the album. It definitely 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:08.160 does. It makes the start feel like a continuation 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:10.839 of a thought rather than an introduction. And 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:13.500 keep an eye out in your local record stores or 00:18:13.500 --> 00:18:17.039 thrift shops for those physical copies. If you 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.559 are flipping through the CDs and you see a white 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:21.839 disc with a purple circle on it, you know you've 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:24.500 struck gold. Do not let that one go. Buy it. 00:18:24.539 --> 00:18:26.960 immediately. Absolutely. Thanks for unpacking 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.099 this amazing time capsule with us. It's been 00:18:29.099 --> 00:18:31.920 an absolute blast exploring the Evil Office. 00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:34.619 Lots of fun. We will catch you on the next Deep 00:18:34.619 --> 00:18:34.980 Dive.