Frengers

Frengers, alternatively titled as Frengers: Not Quite Friends, But Not Quite Strangers, is the third album by Danish band Mew, originally 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.

Frengers
Studio album by
Mew
Released7 April 2003
RecordedSeptember 2001–November 2002
Studio
Genre
Length48:43
LabelSony
ProducerRich Costey
Mew chronology
Half the World Is Watching Me
(2000)		 Frengers
(2003)		 And the Glass Handed Kites
(2005)
Singles from Frengers
  1. "Comforting Sounds"
    Released: 24 March 2003
  2. "Am I Wry? No"
    Released: 16 June 2003
  3. "156"
    Released: July 2003 (Europe only)
  4. "She Came Home for Christmas" / "That Time on the Ledge"
    Released: 15 December 2003
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
BBC8/10[3]
Drowned in Sound8/10[4]
Gaffa[5]
PopMattersfavorable[1]
Sputnikmusic5/5[6]
Stylus MagazineB+[7]
Uncut 4/10[8]

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 until they were subsequently rereleased internationally, 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".

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Am I Wry? No"4:54
2."156"4:55
3."Snow Brigade"4:22
4."Symmetry"5:39
5."Behind the Drapes"3:40
6."Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years"2:48
7."Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed"4:48
8."She Came Home for Christmas"3:55
9."She Spider"4:44
10."Comforting Sounds"8:53
Total length:48:43

Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (For You)"1:57
12."Wherever"4:22
Total length:55:02

Personnel

Mew

Additional personnel
  • Tobias Wilner Bertram - turntables on tracks 6, 8
  • Rich Costey - ride cymbal on track 6
  • Klaus Nielsen - piano on track 6
  • Bo Rande - trumpet on track 10
  • Damon Tutunjian - additional vocals on track 2, additional guitars on track 9
  • Patrick Warren - piano on tracks 1, 8
  • Nick Watts - piano on tracks 4, 10, synthesizers on tracks 9, 10
  • George Marino - mastering
  • Stefan Ruiz - photography
  • Flemming Rasmussen, Troels Alsted, Andreas Hviid, Dan Lefler, Darren Mora and Fred Archanbault - additional engineering

Singles
Year Title UK
Singles Chart
2003 Comforting Sounds 48
Am I Wry? No [b] 47
She Came Home for Christmas [a] 55
156 –
Notes
  • a^ Re-released in 2000, 2002 and 2003. Peaked at #76 on the UK Singles Chart in 2002.
  • b^ Re-released in 2003. Peaked at #137 on UK Singles Chart on its first release.

References
  1. Williams, Richard T. (29 April 2004). "Mew: Frengers". PopMatters. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  2. O'Brien, Jon. Frengers. AllMusic. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20030423102747/http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/manchester/music/2003/04/14/frengers.shtml
  4. Adams, Sean. Mew - Frengers. Drowned in Sound. 2 April 2003. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  5. http://gaffa.dk/anmeldelse/19402
  6. http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=10262
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20080820052433/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/mew/frengers.htm
  8. Mew - Frengers Uncut. 1 September 2003. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
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