For a band to be defined as great, their sound must stand out as unique. With Mew, the jury is still out: In one frame of mind this Danish four-piece that promise such eccentricity fail spectacularly to impress, and, in another, their space-age prog has the capacity to excite the keenest of minds. Apocalypso fails to dispel either interpretation, which, if nothing else, should keep attention among an expectant underground audience high.

Beginning with a riff sounding like the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Parallel Universe and spending the ensuing five minutes flitting between generic verse, chorus and bridge structures of floating synthesiser and the heavily treated vocals of Jonas Bjerre, one could be forgiven for feeling they had stumbled across a Pet Shop Boys B-side.

But given a chance, this work begins to make sense - the subtle time changes and overall haunting feel eventually take over Apocalypso’s sound, leaving the impression that Mew may have achieved the feat of taking the outlandish beauty of My Bloody Valentine and giving it a more digestible quality. As for which side you will come down on, it may well be determined by how fully Mew now follow up the promising aspects of this release.