MEW - 156 (Video Version)

2003

MEW - 156 (Video Version) (2003) Era: Post-Britpop / Early 2000s Indie Internationalism (2003) - Danish alt-rock crosses into the UK market via Sony/Epic, riding the wave of experimental indie at peak MTV Europe rotation High curatorial value as a rare example of an early-2000s major-label music video built entirely around the visual language of American underground comics (Ron Rege, Jr.), with no live-action performance. Documents an under-catalogued moment of transatlantic visual-arts collaboration within European indie-pop, and serves as a cultural bridge artefact between the zine/comics subculture and mainstream MTV circulation. The video's 2009 re-release also makes it a dual-era document. Context: Released in 2003 as the fourth and final single from Mew's breakthrough album Frengers, '156' arrived at a moment when Scandinavian alternative acts were beginning to cross into international markets via UK licensing deals with major labels such as Epic/Sony. The video's use of Ron Rege, Jr.'s underground-comics illustration style placed it at a rare intersection of American indie-comics culture and European dream-pop, anticipating the mid-2000s vogue for animated music videos by indie acts. The warm, surrealist visual world mirrored the song's themes of longing and emotional ambiguity, reinforcing Mew's identity as a band operating outside mainstream visual conventions. The video was later re-released officially online in 2009, extending its cultural reach into the nascent YouTube era. Director notes: The video is built around the illustration work of Ron Rege, Jr., credited on the Discogs release of the 2003 UK single as 'Illustration [Drawing By]'. The animation style reflects his distinctive underground-comics aesthetic. The 'Video Version' was officially published to Mew's Facebook page on November 20, 2009, suggesting a remaster or official online release occurred six years after the single. No production company, director, or animation studio credit has been located in any publicly available source.