UK band ME REX began as the solo project of Myles McCabe, but eventually expanded into a full band that also features Kathryn Woods (Fresh, Cheerbleederz), Rich Mandel (Happy Accidents), and Phoebe Cross (Happy Accidents, Cheerbleederz). They released the double EP Triceratops / Stegosaurus last year, and now they're set to follow it with a very unique, 52-song album called Megabear on June 18 via Big Scary Monsters (pre-order). The premise of the album is that each track ranges from 30-60 seconds, and no matter what order you play it in, it's meant to sound like a cohesive song cycle where each track flows right into the next.
"As you might be able to tell, I am a big fan of kind of building in contradictions," Myles said in an interview with Miranda Reinert for Stereogum. "So it’s this cynical statement and it’s a half-hour piece of art. And it’s one song and it’s 50 songs. And there’s no intentionality, but also there are set orders."
The album won't be on streaming services for another few weeks, but you can stream it now at megabear.co.uk, where it's on a constant, randomized loop. They also put together some of the pieces for a single that's out now, "Galena."
"The single eventually came about [while] we were trying to learn to play the whole thing live, which again brings up that intentionality issue," Myles said in that Stereogum interview. "So what we were initially going to do is try and film a session where we learned the songs in the order that they were recorded in and then the session would be cut and rearranged into various random orders. But it was just too hard. So I kind of rerecorded a basic version of a few of the songs and we changed the dynamics of it. It’s out of that the single sort of developed."
If you're unfamiliar with ME REX, they've often been compared to Los Campesinos! and Frightened Rabbit, and I especially hear the latter in the lush, emotive indie pop that makes up much of this album. That said, they've also very much got their own vibe and this album hits way too hard to get caught up in comparisons. Listen on shuffle here and stream "Galena" below.
Tracklist
1. Hydrogen
2. Tin
3. Weaving Clothes
4. Helium
5. Ancient Ash
6. Moon Rising
7. Oganesson
8. The Weapons of Artemis
9. Lead
10. Aion and Ficus
11. Argon
12. Distillate
13. Mercury Burns and Eats Itself
14. Reclaimed from the Water
15. God of Rain
16. Iron Oxide
17. Megabear
18. Ursa Major
19. Cod Liver Oil and Orange Juice
20. Lapis Lazuli
21. The Shape of Our Container
22. Krypton
23. Jupiter
24. Saturn Dragon and Child
25. Applewhite Iron Sulphide
26. Excavation
27. Silver Iodide
28. Heaven's Gate
29. Hale's Comet
30. Radon
31. Putrefaction
32. Venus
33. Iron Gated
34. Iron Sulphide
35. Opus
36. Crystal Palaces
37. Split Egg in the Mirror
38. Sulphur and Mercury
39. Wandle
40. Burnt Oak
41. Pulled Apart
42. Peck
43. Nettles
44. Royal Art
45. The King of Drowning
46. Peckham Rye
47. Sun Rising Over the City
48. Static and Splendour
49. The Party Eating Its Own Tail
50. For Transmutation
51. Neon
52. Xenon
