The Philadelphia-based mewithoutYou, first enlightened me with their 2002 debut album A --> B Life. They were loud and rough around the edges. Aaron Weiss' unrelenting cries to God, to people, and to all of us were heard and very greatly appreciated. Weiss' fantastically clever and unique writing style backed by an incredibly strong group of musicians was solid, untouchable matter.
With Catch For Us The Foxes, they were only beginning to perfect and mold themselves into something bigger and better with tracks like "January 1979" and "Torches Together". The follow up to this album would in my opinion, be their masterpiece. 2006's Brother, Sister is one of my favorite records ever made. The beautiful precision with which the tracks flow never ceases to impress the liveliness out of me. "Messes of Men" and "A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains" being only two magical examples.
So when it came time for the bands fourth album, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright, I thought they could do no wrong. But the edgy, intense cries of all that makes up mewithoutYou had vanished upon listening to their newest tunes. They replaced their old songs with nothing more than children's folk songs.
When mewithoutYou played in the basement of their hometown's First Unitarian Church this past December, they played a set consisting mostly of songs from the first three albums that crowds go wild over. When it came time for the songs from the new record, the band played them well, but they were definitely the weaker portion of their always tight shows.
A blissful keyboard resonating with sounds of jubilee in "Every Thought A Thought of You" is the first thing you encounter when you put the new album on for a listen. The promise of an electric guitar is heard every so often, but this is as intense as it will get. On "The Fox, The Crow and The Cookie" you get introduced to brass instruments which give it an indie/Beirut-esque twist that you're not sure if you're okay with (Like when a child tries a new food and grimaces without deciding yet if it's actually yummy or not.)
The lyrics to almost every song on the new album lacked luster, to say the least. This was incredibly upsetting to me since one of the greater parts of mewithoutYou are Aaron Weiss' incredible words. "Timothy Hay" starts out with soothing "do, do, do's" that confuse you a bit. Then there is a chorus of what seems like a choir exclaiming "what a beautiful God there must be." Although we are aware of the topic of God being present in their songs, their completely opposite approach on the musical arrangements makes this album sound just like my little nephew's bible sing-a-long tapes.
The last few songs speak of nothing other than forest animals. They end the album with "Allah, Allah, Allah" that I could swear is an actual child's tune that I just can't remember the name of. Trumpets find their way into the song as well and top off what is by far the folkiest of all that mewithoutYou never was. I hope that this is just a minor blemish on an otherwise great band and that they will find a steady ground to build something bigger and better than this album in the future.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Sharon Van Etten's Because I Was In Love
The first time I heard Sharon Van Etten, she quietly stepped on stage as the opening act for The Antlers at Bowery Ballroom in 2009. She looked quite nervous playing before an audience that had no idea who she was, but later expressed her joy that she hadn't had "any fruit thrown" at her yet.
Fruit throwing wasn't the only thing out of mind; everything beside Sharon wasn't important while she was up there playing to a completely silent audience. Captivated, I bought her debut album Because I Was In Love after the show. The title was perfectly fitting because every song stemmed from a relationship that had irrevocably ended.
This album isn't just a sappy break up record; it's filled with depth, amazing harmonies and overflows with emotion. A Brooklyn Native, Sharon isn't unlike the recognizable folk voices of Alela Diane or Dana Falconberry. The songs don't have much more than acoustic guitar pluckings, child-like murmurs and heart-wrenching lyrics. The song, "Consolation Prize" is the one that had prompted me to buy her album. She belts at the top of her lungs and seems to promise to herself that she "will never be your consolation prize." An otherwise small, shy girl commands complete attention the second she raises her angelic voice.
The song "Tornado" is one of the strongest lyrical pieces on the album. As she sobbingly sings "I'm a tornado. You are the dust, you're all around, and you're inside," she knows it's almost impossible to get rid of the person she loved. It depicts destruction and wreckage inside of her. As intense as the lyrics seem to be, the music backing them is ironically passive, symbolic of the attitude she may have possesed while dealing with these emotions.
Sharon has the power to soothe you, making this by far one of the greatest fall-asleep-to records. It also has the power to make you cry. She released all of her hurt and angst onto a beautiful record. A way to heal. And that is what this album does for it's listeners... it heals.
Fruit throwing wasn't the only thing out of mind; everything beside Sharon wasn't important while she was up there playing to a completely silent audience. Captivated, I bought her debut album Because I Was In Love after the show. The title was perfectly fitting because every song stemmed from a relationship that had irrevocably ended.
This album isn't just a sappy break up record; it's filled with depth, amazing harmonies and overflows with emotion. A Brooklyn Native, Sharon isn't unlike the recognizable folk voices of Alela Diane or Dana Falconberry. The songs don't have much more than acoustic guitar pluckings, child-like murmurs and heart-wrenching lyrics. The song, "Consolation Prize" is the one that had prompted me to buy her album. She belts at the top of her lungs and seems to promise to herself that she "will never be your consolation prize." An otherwise small, shy girl commands complete attention the second she raises her angelic voice.
The song "Tornado" is one of the strongest lyrical pieces on the album. As she sobbingly sings "I'm a tornado. You are the dust, you're all around, and you're inside," she knows it's almost impossible to get rid of the person she loved. It depicts destruction and wreckage inside of her. As intense as the lyrics seem to be, the music backing them is ironically passive, symbolic of the attitude she may have possesed while dealing with these emotions.
Sharon has the power to soothe you, making this by far one of the greatest fall-asleep-to records. It also has the power to make you cry. She released all of her hurt and angst onto a beautiful record. A way to heal. And that is what this album does for it's listeners... it heals.
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