Ok, crew, this group is about getting out of your musical comfort zone so this week that's what I'm gonna make you do. No, it's not Paramore, sorry to disappoint. This week I've chosen one of my all time favorite albums, mewithoutYou's third album, Brother, Sister. MewithoutYou probably fits most comfortably into the post-hardcore genre, but there has been a clear evolution of sound throughout their six-album discography. While their first two albums relied much more heavily on frontman (and lyrical genius) Aaron Weiss screaming, he made a very successful effort to incorporate more singing into Brother, Sister. Their fourth album made a sharp turn towards indie folk and dropped the screaming completely, creating a sound almost reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel (except way better). The fifth album, Ten Stories continued the more subdued trend but with a less folksy vibe and an stronger emphasis on storytelling, as each song was a sort of fable. The album they put out this year, Pale Horses, is an incredible blend of all the sounds they've had over the years.
If I had to choose one thing that makes mewithoutYou such a unique and intriguing band, it would definitely be their lyrics. The Weiss brothers grew up in a Sufi Muslim household with a mother who had converted from Christianity and a father who had converted from Judaism, so they were exposed to a plethora of ideas throughout their childhood which Aaron pulls heavily from in his songwriting. As someone who is intrigued by the ideas of different religions, regardless of personal belief, and especially by the way they can coexist, I completely eat this stuff up. Aaron's lyrics are so layered with allusions to philosophers and various religious texts that they really could be studied and picked apart in an academic manner and I tend to catch something new every time I listen to one of mewithoutYou's albums. So this paragraph was a sort of disclaimer/plea for you to leave any past religious biases at the door when you go to listen to this album and take it as a work of art. If religion is a fairy tale in your eyes, you can still enjoy the rich mythology presented here.
So anyway, your challenge for this week is to give this album 3 good listens. I would HIGHLY recommend sitting down with the lyrics at least once. If it's just not your thing that's cool but give it a chance. If you love it and you can't get enough I can help recommend where to go next in their discography and also talk to you about them forever. They also put on one of the most passionate and energetic live shows I've ever seen so if the opportunity arrises, GO. Thank me later.
(this post was done on behalf of Nora who was having technical difficulties in posting it under her account. cheers.)
on the clock
Maz
current selection
Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly (1972)
past selections
- Elbow - Asleep in the Back (2001)
- Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (2005)
- Asobi Seksu - Citrus (2006)
- Brittle Brian - Verisune (2015)
- The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002)
- Solange - A Seat at the Table (2016)
- Younghusband - Dissolver (2015)
- Downtown Boys - Full Communism (2015)
- Cornelius - Point (2001)
- Katie Dey- Flood Network (2016)
- Mother Falcon - You Knew (2013)
- Poliça - Shulamith (2013)
- Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda (1971)
- Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman (1996)
- Self - Breakfast With Girls (1999)
- This Town Needs Guns - Animals (2008)
who's on deck
- Erik
- Nora
- Parker
- Tyler
- Sam
- Maz
what we do, and how we do it
1. Rotate through members of the club - current member picks an album and completes a write up on the album.
2. Other members listen as many times as they can throughout the course of 7 days. When ready, other members write comments on the original post detailing how they feel about the album.
3. Repeat.
Optional discussion questions that you can ignore if you want to but I'm curious ok sorry get over it:
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think about the spider interludes?
I feel like you should include this without me saying it but if you had a favorite song say it
Was there a specific lyric that you were like, "yeah, man, yeah"
What did you think of Aaron's voice and did your opinions change after multiple listens
THIS ONE ISN'T OPTIONAL AND IT'S DIRECTED DIRECTLY AT SAM:
did u like the drummer
So after about three listens, I feel like I can confidently say I'm not really a fan of this album. The instrumentation is actually pretty great, nice drum patterns and rhythms especially in The Sun and the Moon. The problem for me came from the way the singer sings, not much to say other than it's a style I'm not too huge of a fan of.
ReplyDeleteC-Minor, In a Sweater Poorly Knit, and The Sun and The Moon are tracks I enjoyed a lot more than the others. I looked up some of the lyrics and I get a vibe that this band, or maybe just this album, is actually quite spiritual? I could be wrong. But, after following your suggestion to listen while reading the lyrics, it definitely changed the vibe for me a bit. You can tell there's a theme of one's relation to a spiritual being so that was actually quite surprising.
All in all, this probably isn't an album I'll listen to again but it definitely wasn't difficult to get through.
Let me start out by saying, as you all probably know, this is not a genre into which I typically explore. I'm not one who cares much about lyrics. I'm just not. I am drawn towards rhythm and cohesiveness more than I am the poetry of it all. So I can certainly appreciate this album as the instrumentals are solid and the musicians are obviously talented. As I mentioned in our Slack room, the band reminds me a lot of a louder version of a local band called Human Behavior (https://humanbehaviormusic.bandcamp.com/) - they are a very cool band that also has a lot of religious themes in the lyrics and the singer's voice is like a more acute version of Mr. mewithoutYou's.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite parts of the record is the chanting-style "The Dryness and the Rain" and how it transitions into that pretty nifty riff in "Wolf Am I!". The guitar playing throughout is good.
Still, I can't get the "emo" image out of my head. It's the vocal delivery, and it's never something I've loved. Wordy, yelling over the music, etc. etc. I'm glad I listened to it - I think it's a very good album within its genre. It's not my style but that's what branching out is all about!
I basically agree with Maz. Also to answer your discussion question, the drumming seemed pretty good but to be honest it didn't stick out to me as particularly special or creative.
The first time I heard anything from this album, it was in 2007, and in person. They were touring with Thrice and Brand New, and I caught the Orlando show. I knew the other bands, but mewithoutYou was a mystery to me. When they played, I was absolutely blown away. The band brought such an energy to their performance, it was infectious (they also brought out and played the bagpipes which 16 year old me thought was amazing).
ReplyDeleteClearly they aren’t going to be for everyone. Aaron's vocal delivery can be seen as grating. While this is certainly a fair judgement, I do not share this sentiment. I think it sets the band apart while also adding to the passion of the music.
Speaking of Aaron Weiss, it is hard to discuss this album, or any album by mewithoutYou, without acknowledging the lyrical content. He manages to combined all the religious experiences of his life to create a rich tapestry of allusions to a higher power. He melds multiple faiths together in his work. References to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism permeate the album. While he highlights his relationship with God in his work, themes of self doubt and personal suffering are also apparent. “I do not exist, only you exist.” “The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead.” “Open wide my door, while there is still light to run towards.” “I was once the white, while you were the one in black.” All lyrics that I enjoy quite a lot.
Favorite songs of mine on the album include : The Dryness of the Rain, Nice and Blue (pt.2), C-Minor, In a Sweater Poorly Knit, and all the Spider songs. The Spider songs are something I find very interesting. They were originally supposed to be one long song, but instead were broken into three parts to frame the rest of the album. They move in color like the seasons and the feelings conveyed in the lyrics fall in line with this as well, with Brownish spider ending with “No more spider, no more leaf. No more me, no more belief”.
The long and short of it : I love this album and band.
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ReplyDeletemewithoutYou is a very, very distant memory for me. Coincidentally enough, I remember listening to their first two albums and liking them quite a bit, before my tastes in music shifted a little before Brother, Sister came out.
ReplyDeleteI spent the first two-thirds of this album wondering 'which of these songs is supposed to be the good one?'. Which isn't something I wonder about a lot of albums. It's just that for about 8 songs, I think I would rate every song between a 4 and 6 out of 10. Not a painful listen, but just/
not inherently interesting or relistenable. For two-thirds of the album, it feels like every song (sans Spider trilogy, which is okay and I think ends pretty cool, but I think you have to be my age to realize how annoying everyone trying to sound like Conor Oberst was at the time) hits a formula: the first verse has almost the same cadenced talk-read-sing by Weiss, the first chorus has the layered voiceover. The lyrics are all well-written, but a little heavy-handed (possibly also just for the day I listened and re-listened to it) and doesn't necessarily make for a better music album than say, Modern Psalms for the Revised Multi-Theist (not a thing, just made that up).
I think there gets to be a really solid stretch between the second half of C-Minor to the end of O, Porcupine where I just finally feel some emotion. I feel like this album needed a few more highs like this part. Not to say that this album would be better yelled, but I think it just remained at a flat line for far too deep into the album.
Just for fun, I went back to Catch Us for the Foxes, their album two years earlier, which is an album I remember loving, but haven't listened to since 2004 (when I was 16, back in the stone age). I couldn't believe how much more excited I was by just the first two songs from Foxes than anything on this album! I get that they went through a change stylistically, but man I could've used a little more of January 1979 than some of the stuff on the first half of this album.
I've listened to a lot of these proggy-leaning post-hardcore(ish) album with lots of transitions mid-song, grand over-arching messages, and fairly tightly wound narratives. I think a lot of them maybe aim to do a little too much. But the one thing I could say is that it should say is often some of these albums take 10 listens to fully get it. Sometimes it helps knowing when the beats are going to happen, being able to hum along to each time signature change, sing along and fully understand the band's message and story within the album. I think it's a lot more fun and rewarding to have that experience with one of these albums, which I'm guessing Nora and Tyler do with this album, and I do with other albums (within this same genre) myself.
Nora thanks for suggesting this, I don't think I'll get as much out of it as you do, but I give you credit for picking something outside of some people's normal comfort zones. Overall I'm glad I gave it a shot, they're a band I've wanted to get back to for a while.
Going into this, I did not know what to expect. My first listen was the hardest and most shocking because of the lead singer. Getting over that shock in the second listen and trying to focus on qualities that I did like ended up in me gradually liking, well, appreciating the album a whole lot more as I gave it more listens (four full listens was my limit). So, let’s get into depth,
ReplyDeleteThe intro starts off with a typical triphop intro, so I was immediately excited that I was going into something familiar, but was quickly disappointed. However, I came to enjoy that song almost the most out of the entire first half. I am skipping talking about the second song because I dont like it all. It is very cliche in terms of the sound
“Wolf am I” is my favorite song off the album. The verse is a bit weak melodically. The Specifically the pre-chorus & chorus. I love the progression and wailing guitars alongside the backing vocals. That combination is really able to convey some serious emotion. The deadness of the kick drum is great and gives the song this bopping feel doing the chorus. I wish they pushed the metal feel a bit so it sounded more like thrash metal.
“Yellow Spider” is a very needed song to calm you after the great ending of “Wolf Am I”. However, I do not think the other 2 spider songs were very needed (maybe it is in terms of the lyrical content or narrative). The other 2 spider songs do have horns and other such instruments that I wish popped up in other songs, but they dont. They just seem pointless.
“A Glass Can Only...” immediately reminded me of later Bloc Party. The siren guitar, paced out bass guitar, tom-tom-centered drum "riff" sounded like them. But man, this refrain is structually weak. It felt lanky and the guy’s voice and style of “singing” is just very unpleasant. Speaking of the vocalist, a problem I have is that he never hits his peak with his shouting. There is a sense of building things up to a chaotic climax that I thoroughly enjoy, but I can't enjoy his crazy style if he is always at either talking, slightly shouting (like he is at a baseball game asking for some cotton candy) or almost hitting a full yell. he only has three vocal levels, and never hits a comfortable place. And he isn't even technically yelling. He is just enthusiastically expressing himself through a high volume. However, I do understand this is the style that is popular in “post”-insertrockgenre
“Nice & blue Pt 2”’s instrumentation, and fading in->out vocals are a perfect way to fill sonic space and adds a lot to the song. The bridge is super fresh with the alternating snare to kick and spacious hi-hat. The ending was very nice with the distant vocals, booming bass &kick drum and rim clicks “The Sun” started off dreary due to the monotone feel of the vocals and and the choppiness of the guitars. The echoey snare hits and use of the guitars as a way to hold a drone sound but fill space like keys holding a chord during the section after the second chorus was really awesome & a highlight.
Delete“In a market” had the raddest start because of the alternative hiphop feel. The chorus makes me want to bang my head on the table because it has so much potential to be something I like so much, but they decide to "rock out", kick the overdrive on and shout. Ugh. I want to like this but it is so hard because of the damn chorus + post-bridge. “In the Market” and “O, Porc…” are my least favorite
“In a sweater” is kind of revolting but interesting (after the intro). The Western-action-scene tone that is set that gets completely derailed by this dreamy instrumentation is off putting. It doesn't compliment each other. They should choose either one. Preferably the dreamy one. However, great way to close the album
All in all, I enjoyed the middle of the album the most. I think the songs that had the most resemblance to a Bloc Party song were my favorite. I thought that the bass player could have brought more to the table because he mostly just gave the album structure, but didnt help build anything. Most of the songs with a prominent acoustic guitar gave me a western feel, but didnt seem to vibe with many parts of this “post”-insertrockgenre. The wild singing & shouting is my thing. By the third listen I began to unconsciously block the guy's voice out most of the time. Oh and the transition style of the album was very pleasing and rare. A solid album front to back with very little weak points (in terms of the style of the genres it fits in). I know I didnt talk about the lyrics, but I know they are great just from the small things I was able to pick up. I give it a solid ThankYouForTheExperienceINowKnowMoreAboutThisStyleOfMusic/10.