Comparisons could be made between Bob Dylan and Mewithoutyou’s lead singer and lyricist, Aaron Weiss. Both string story and prose together in coded symbols so complex only the author fully knows their meaning. But after listening to the groups fourth album, it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright, a more accurate comparison might be St. Francis of Assisi. Weiss’ lyrics have always used animals as supporting cast yet in MewithoutYou’s latest album they seem to take center stage conversing with each other and Jesus, commanding army’s, sailing across the sea, and stealing pastries from peasants. Yet Animals acting like humans is the most feasible of the elements on MewithoutYou’s fourth studio album. There is an argument between the vegetable inhabitants of a garden in “Bullet to a binary pt.2” and fruit with indigestion in “Fig with a bellyache.” The subjects covered in this new album might be alienating to new listeners but fans of MewithoutYou will be familiar with the poetic license taken by Wiess.
“it’s all crazy!” feels as if it was written without an audience in mind at all. They seem unconcerned with what their fans expect, which makes for a unique listening experience. The style swings from folk to orchestral ballads to classic hymns. All the while held up under the weight of Weiss’ lyrics, which swing just as much. A beautifully jarring lyric about lusting after a woman in the song, “fig with a bellyache” is a prime example:
We pretend to care like we understand.
Our eyes go soft, but know it now.
We’re thinking about your Mammary glands and how to sail your birth canal.
Weiss strips away the facade around the male perception of female beauty in a way that reveals the emptiness behind the action of lusting. This brutally honest approach has become a staple of MewithoutYou and their body of work. What is different with this album is that while the earlier records asked more questions, this album seems to be making statements. The first three albums were filled with a young mans angst and wonder at a world controlled by a God that he knew loved him but not necessarily what that meant while “It’s all Crazy!” is a sliver of the wisdom that comes from intimately following Christ through those questions.
The beauty behind MewithoutYou is that they are essentially a worship band. But unlike the majority of bands under the wide and fattened umbrella of Contemporary Christian Music they don’t choose the lowest common denominator; a trend that many bands seem to follow, leaving their songs filled with lyrics and guitar riffs reminiscent of old “Up with People” ballads. MewithoutYou just makes the music they feel led to make. If they want to say how much God loves you they have a beetle king whisper it to his children before he goes off to his immanent death. If they want to sing the name of God they proclaim it in Arabic. If they want to tell a story about a famous character in the Bible they will make one up about King David bargaining with death to come another day. Weiss isn’t worried about moving the masses, just about moving his own heart. The result is honest, beautiful songs that stand on their own without the normal trappings of Contemporary Christian Music.
MewithoutYou seems to be expanding and maturing leaving behind the harder, crunchier styling’s of their youth for a sound more in the vein of Danielson Familie or Anathallo. Listening back over their previous records the path they have taken can easily be seen. What remains the same is the heart Behind MewithoutYou. The lyrics drip with symbolism and story, hope and pain. With every listen the album meaning is made clearer and more questions are revealed like a flower slowly coming to bloom. The lyrics appear coded only because we aren’t part of the conversation. “It’s all Crazy!” is the communications between Weiss and God. We just happen to be eavesdropping.
MewithoutYou’s fourth album, it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s a dream! it’s all right is available Tuesday, May 19th.
