''Frengers'', alternatively titled as ''Frengers: Not Quite Friends, But Not Quite Strangers'', is the third studio album by Danish

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band Mew. It was released on 7 April 2003. The title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

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.

Background

Six of the album's ten tracks were previously included on Mew's first two albums ''

A Triumph for Man ''A Triumph for Man'' is the first studio album by Danish band Mew, released in April 1997 by the Danish record label Exlibris Musik. Only 2,000 copies of the album were printed initially and prices for an original copy have reached upwards of ...

'' 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 Kristina Ulrika Marianne Nordenstam (born 4 March 1969), better known by her stage name Stina Nordenstam, is a Swedish singer-songwriter and producer. She is perhaps best known for her song "Little Star", which appears in the Baz Luhrman film R ...

. The vocals for "Symmetry" were recorded by a 13-year-old American named Becky Jarrett, who came in contact with the band online two years earlier. Bjerre was in search of a vocal with a "childlike" quality, so her mother sent the band recordings, but the quality was so poor that the band decided to fly them to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

to record in the studio. "156" features backing vocals by Damon Tutunjian of the American band

Swirlies Swirlies is an American indie rock band formed in Boston in 1990. Since their first records in the early 1990s, the band has released studio and home recordings that blend shoegaze and twee pop with electronica and lo-fi music. Swirlies releas ...

. 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".

Recording

The album was recorded in several studios. Producer

Rich Costey Richard Costey is an American music producer, mixer, and engineer. He has worked with musicians across genres including rock, indie, pop, hip-hop, and electronica. Notable collaborators include Fiona Apple, Vampire Weekend, Foo Fighters, Sig ...

first flew to Copenhagen to record "Snow Brigade". They were supposed to continue working in Copenhagen, but the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

changed the band's plans, and they ended up flying to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to record "Am I Wry? No", "She Came Home for Christmas" and a few B-sides.

Track listing

Personnel

Mew

Jonas Bjerre Jonas Bjerre Terkelsbøl (born 21 September 1976) is a Danish musician and visual artist from Copenhagen, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Mew. Bjerre creates animated videos for Mew's live shows. He has an uncommon v ...

– vocals, guitars,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Bo Madsen Mew is a Danish alternative rock band from Copenhagen, formed in 1995. The band is made up of Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals), Johan Wohlert (bass) and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums). From 1995 to 2015, the band also featured guitarist Bo Madsen ...

– guitars *

Johan Wohlert Johan Haslund Wohlert (born 10 March 1976) is the bass player of Danish indie band Mew. He previously left the band on 11 April 2006, because he did not feel that he could be a rock star and a good father at the same time. He was boyfriend to P ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, guitars *Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Additional musicians

*Patrick Warren – piano on tracks 1, 8 *Damon Tutunjian – additional vocals on track 2, additional guitars on track 9 *Becky Jarrett – vocals on track 4 *Nick Watts – piano on tracks 4, 10, synthesizers on tracks 9, 10 *Tobias Wilner Bertram –

turntables A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

on tracks 6, 8 *Rich Costey –

ride cymbal The ride cymbal is a cymbal of material sustain used to maintain a beat (music), beat in music.Schroedl, Scott (2001). ''Play Drums Today!'', p.7. Hal Leonard. . A standard in most drum kit, drum kits, the ride's function is to maintain a steady ...

on track 6 *Klaus Nielsen – piano on track 6 *Stina Nordenstam – vocals on track 6 *Bo Rande –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

on track 10

Technical

– producer *

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

– mastering *Flemming Rasmussen, Troels Alsted, Andreas Hviid, Dan Lefler, Darren Mora and Fred Archanbault – additional engineering

Commercial reception

Charts

Sales

References

{{Authority control 2003 albums Mew (band) albums Albums produced by Joshua (record producer) Albums produced by Rich Costey