Album Review :
mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright
By Michael Mayer III in Reviews | Comments closed
Artist: mewithoutYou
Album: It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright
Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Review by: Michael Mayer III
Tracklisting:
- Every Thought a Thought of You
- The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie
- The Angel of Death Came to David’s Room
- Goodbye, I!
- A Stick, a Carrot & String
- Bullet to Binary (Part Two)
- Timothy Hay
- Fig With a Bellyache
- Cattail Down
- The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate
- Allah, Allah, Allah
Does hearing mewithoutYou happy and upbeat scare you? Depending on how you answer that question you’ll know how much you can expect to enjoy their fourth album (referred to as It’s All Crazy! from now on). This album is very upbeat, cheery, and laid back when compared to past releases. That’s more than just ‘alright’ to me.
When they started out with [A–>B] Life there was a great amount of aggression and angst in the songs as Aaron delivered his soon-to-be trademark screaming/yelling of the insanely deep lyrics over loud, brash music. It was intense and a breath of fresh air. As each album came about you could hear the angst and aggression turn into a beautiful soundscape of textures and multiple instruments with Aaron’s style becoming less abrasive. Each album also seemed to have a hint at what direction the next would go even though we didn’t know it at the time. Brother, Sister‘s quieter nature and greater use of melody (most point out the ‘Spider’ songs) come to the forefront in this release.
Seeing as I disliked those ‘Spider’ songs for breaking up the flow and being downright weird I can say there’s none of that here. The album flows very well and the fantastic, insightful lyrics we come to expect are stronger than ever. As always, they lead you to reflect about your life and how your living as Aaron can be as blunt as he is mysterious. Then there’s the fairy tale type songs like ‘The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie’ that you know could have a couple different meanings.
Although the lyrics are of the same style the delivery of them certainly isn’t. He doesn’t yell anymore so much as talk and sing. Melody plays a much bigger roll too, which is immediately noticeable on the opening track ‘Every Thought a Thought of You’. His voice even seems like it’s an instrument of it’s own with his ‘Doo doo doo’s’ on ‘Timothy Hay’. Those of you who hated their vocals in the past owe it to yourselves to give this album a try. The music is as beautiful as ever.
There is really not one heavy track on this album either and that’s where people may dislike it. Some may say they’ve lost their passion or excitement, but I beg to differ. They seem to be more passionate than ever about their beliefs (up for interpretation on what those may be) and the music they are creating. MewithoutYou just have a different way of showing it now and it couldn’t be more obvious than with the second part of ‘Bullet to Binary’, which is entirely different than the first one on their debut album. Those two songs can show just how far they’ve come musically and as a group.
Overall: I’ll admit that I miss a bit of the groove they had going on in Catch for Us the Foxes and some of the songs at the end are a bit too quiet for my tastes. Still, It’s All Crazy is the second best album they’ve crafted and a contender for one of the best albums released this year. They have seemingly worked through all of the things in life that were going against them early in their career and have found a peace. I say that because if music is a window to the soul then that’s what I’m seeing.
Gems of this album are: ‘The Angel of Death Came to David’s Room’, ‘Every Thought a Thought of You’, ‘The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie’, ‘Timothy Hay’
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