Review: mewithoutYou – It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright (2009)
Aaron Weiss, mewithoutYou bandleader, has felt the need to innovate more dramatically from their two previous offerings since 2006′s Brother, Sister. Riding the fence between two genres proved largely ineffective, and as the band coasted gently back toward their comfort zone, it resulted in more of the same. Though they be humble, timid they are not; if your right hand causes you to retread…well, you get the idea.
It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright finds mewithoutYou in previously uncharted territory, where they’re strumming acoustic guitars in a warm, earthy fashion. On the other hand, both Catch Us For The Foxes and Brother, Sister, saw the group wallowing in a dark, brooding aesthetic that recalled bands like Slint and Cursive. While …It’s Alright does appear to be a step forward for the band, it’s difficult to shake the suspicion that it’s merely a more sophisticated iteration of the CCM modus operandi. That is, to say: shamelessly aping popular secular acts, only this time to the freak-folk genre (or Naturalismo, for the Devendranites), and again, nearly a decade late.
Aaron generally gets the album to himself, showcasing his shaky, endearing croon. He’s famed in certain circles for his poetry, and it is indeed strong in the great majority of the album; though confrontational at best and offensive at worst, his more direct channels strike like humanizing darts and prove themselves sobering: “we pretend to care and like we understand / our eyes go soft, but know it now / what we’re thinking about is your mammary glands / and how to sail your birth canal.”
Along with a winning singalong accompaniment and peppy rhythm, those lyrics make “Fig With A Bellyache” one of the off-the-bat attention grabbers, as do those from lead-off track “Every Thought A Thought Of You:” “when they swear their love is real / they mean / I like the way you make me feel.” There’s also some rich, brutally realistic imagery (“Cattail Down”), and a startlingly vibrant examination of hubris (“The Fox, The Crow, and The Cookie”).
mewithoutYou’s “The Fox, The Crow, And The Cookie.”
Aaron Weiss is a talented lyricist, but not just in the traditional sense. He has a particular knack for rambling vocal riffs that engage the listener (“The Fox, The Crow, and The Cookie,” “Goodbye, I!”), which can actually be troubling at times – the transfixing lines make the rotten ones stand in sharp relief. Although the band’s muscle and energy save all but one track from failure, navigating the melodramatic (“Bullet To Binary, pt. Two”) and stubbornly esoteric (“The King Beetle On A Coconut Estate”) sorely bruises the listener’s endurance.
It’s also unfortunate to see that repetition seems to trump hooks on “Timothy Hay” (what a beautiful God there must be…), “Cattail Down” (you’re everyone else…), and “Allah, Allah, Allah” (in everyone we meet…). In the latter track’s case, the grating isn’t even eased by a comely arrangement; it combines flatly with a languid chord progression and the two together amount to significantly more abrasion than enjoyment. As the album’s closer, that hurts.
Christianity and many brands of Islam share similarities in general societal practices and beliefs, but Weiss probably discards a pluralist agenda, which makes the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen theme all the more lyrically abstruse. This kind of presentation might be valuable and rich from an artistic standpoint, but in essence seems more likely to blur the concepts Weiss ultimately cares most deeply about. Adding insult to injury, the face of it is oddly didactic for a string of vignettes so generously basted with tolerance.
If it isn’t black and white, then, so be it. Weiss would seemingly say: “Neither is life, most of the time.” So in that sense, at least, the album — along with Aaron’s lifestyle — is a refreshing and visceral aperture into the postmodern Protestant worldview. While the album is good, it isn’t excellent, no matter what the kid in the cardigan tells you after church; he’s dining a la carte, but from a carefully sanctioned menu. Moreover, the fact that It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright is good more readily serves as an acerbic reminder that concerning creativity and merit, the world of Christian music is a desolate place, indeed.
