Brother, Sister Sleeps Soundly Underground Knowing Its Legacy Lives On With a New Voice
The radical changes to Mewithoutyou’s sound may leave many old fans questioning why? But their latest work is nothing to be questioned.
Mewithoutyou
It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright
Released on May 19, 2009
You’ve heard the tale of the phoenix, right? That beautiful, majestic bird that dies in a fury of flames, only to be born again from its own ashes. Now superimpose that idea with the career of Mewithoutyou, with only a few slight variations. It goes without saying that the former Mewithoutyou which so many of us had come to love has died with the release of their fourth album, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright.
I’m not going to tell you I don’t miss it. It just wouldn’t be true. But despite the absence of Weiss’ often ardent and vengeful shouts, I think I’ll be able to get along with the new Mewithoutyou just fine. With this new album the band takes a turn directly into the heart of folk. With a mellowed and rustic feel adorning much of this album, it’s hardly reminiscent of their past work, but it’s still unmistakably good music.
“Every Thought a Thought of
You,” the first track off the new album has a vaguely familiar sound
to it, although most of that familiarity goes right out the window once
Weiss begins chanting in what sounds like some kind of Islamic tongue.
After this point the closest comparisons between albums could be made
to the “spider songs” from Brother, Sister.
Perhaps what I can appreciate most on It's All Crazy!... is Mewithoutyou’s continuing ability to tell stories through song. This is best illustrated on the song “The Fox, The Crow, and The Cookie.” I greatly admire Weiss’ lyrical ability, I always have, but this song is the showboat for his words. “Goodbye, I!,” is another good example of storytelling on this album.
Mewithoutyou has often been label as a Christian rock band, while religious themes may not have been so blatant on past releases, religious themes make up most of the tracks on It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright. A Christian influence can’t be much more apparent than in songs like “the Angel of Death came to David’s room” and “A Stick, A Carrot and String,” which sound as though they’re straight out of the big book itself.
This is an album of many faces,
changing from a somber story at one point, to a humorous fable at another,
all the while filled with clever sexual references, talk of love, fear,
and religion. From the orchestral accompaniment in “The King
Beetle on a Coconut Estate,” to the horns and guitar solos in the
pseudo-church-sing-along “Allah, Allah, Allah,” Mewithoutyou manages
to boast a little bit of everything on this surprising album.
High Point
“Bullet to Binary (Pt. Two)” is the only track on the album featuring Weiss’ characteristic old vocal style, the rest of the tracks having a spoken word feel to them. This track also includes full-band chanting, and who doesn’t enjoy a nice chant?
Low Point
The Low point of It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright is that it isn’t just a continuation of Brother, Sister. It lacks the power and emotionalism of the bands former works, and turns away from their past of post-progressive rock, to turn a new leaf in the realm of folk.
Posted by Andrew Scott on May 14, 2009 @ 6:00 am