Review Summary: Well if your pacific rivers all run dry, their clouds will fill my loud corrupted sky. And if the pleasures of your heavens ever end that very ladder just as well descends
2009’s
It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright! created a definite schism between mewithoutYou fans. It seemed as though the stripped down, folky approach to their music brought about only two emotions; Love and Hate. Seeing as
It’s All Crazy.. was the album that got me into to mewithoutYou, I of course belonged to the former. (Sans
Fig With A Bellyache. I struggle to even listen to that song from start to finish.) After leaving their long time record label Tooth and Nail, mewithoutYou opted to instead self-release their 5th studio album
Ten Stories, an album that was self-proclaimed “more of a guitar driven record [than
It’s All Crazy.”
Ten Stories has been heralded as a ‘return to form’ for the Philadelphia based genre-bending foursome and one could see how that could be argued. But
Ten Stories is more of a permutation; there are aspects to be found from all four of mewithoutYou’s past LP’s. (Yes, even [ A -*B Life], if only in the occasional mention of the loss of love.) The frantic opener “February, 1878” harkens back to the days of
Catch For Us The Foxes with the boisterous yells of Aaron Weiss, pounding drums of Rickie Mazzotta and the pulsing bass line. But a deeper look into the song itself shows the perfect example of why this album perfectly blends every positive aspect that mewithoutYou has to offer. The reverb-filled and hard-hitting guitars have returned along with the yelling, but at the same time the lyrics stray more into the realm of fables and storytelling.
Straying from the more personal lyrics in the past, Weiss instead chooses to create a story of a circus train crash circa 1878 and the subsequent trials and tribulations of the animal passengers. But don’t let this description conjure up images of campfire songs about elephants and tigers singing together happily; there is an unprecedented darkness to be found throughout nearly all 11 tracks. Nearly each song, in some small way delves into the topic of death/suicide. The loosely based concept serves as a medium for Weiss to speak freely of the problems and suffering he endures without placing too much focus on himself. There is still a copious amount of thought-provoking lyrics found during the course of
Ten Stories. But with this release we find mewithoutYou not being afraid to include lines such as “Did you come knocking on my door or did I come to yours? Whose ship came washed up on whose shore?” in the same song as “Well maybe there’ll be a bakery hiring – we’ll knead some dough to get by” It’s this self-awareness and willingness to say exactly what they were thinking that has caused countless people to fall in love with the music and lyrics of mewithoutYou.
But, personally, the most interesting thematic aspect of these stories and lyrics is the reoccurring idea of ‘I’ and what exactly ‘I’ represents. The sense of self searching has been present in every mewithoutYou release, be it the opening and closing lyrics of
Brother, Sister or the rumination on religion on the massive track “Carousel”. Aaron Weiss and company always seem to be grasping for a sense of self-worth, or at the very least self-understanding. And this release sees no determent in this search, although we do see Weiss seeming to become content with the fact that he might never know the answers to these questions. We first see this fleeting concept of what ‘I’ really is during the final chorus of “Cardiff Giant” as Weiss sings “I often wonder if I’ve already died or if the ‘I’ is an unintelligible lie.” This contemplation carries through into “Elephant In The Dock” when we hear “Yes, my body did just as you imply while some ghost we’ll call ‘I’ idly watched through its eyes.” And in this is where I myself can find such a personal bond with music that hundreds of thousands of people have also heard; Aaron Weiss has questions, questions that nearly every human being at one point has asked himself, and he has yet to find answers to these questions… Even ten years later. And he is seemingly becoming content with the fact that he may not ever know the undefinable answers to these unfathomable questions.
Pertaining to musical aspect of
Ten Stories, “February, 1878” (along with “Fox’s Dream Of The Log Flume”) seem to almost serve as songs to remind listeners that this band who once screamed “Let Us Die, Let Us Die” still had the energy and aggression to appease even the most downtrodden of fans. If one was to take out these two tracks, they would find a more indie-rock album with well placed, occasional shouts yells and mumbles amidst a “pop” record. And trust me; the word ‘pop’ is used in the loosest sense of the term. Songs such as “Grist For The Malady Mill” or “Cardiff Giant” manage to integrate sailing choruses and melodies with passionate and moody lyrics. “Fiji Mermaid” treads gaily along with the aforementioned bakery pun and talks of asparagus while containing one of the more aggressive endings on the entire album.
Aggression and passion is found in every single song
Ten Stories has to offer, but nowhere as predominantly as in the track” Fox’s Dream Of The Log Flume”. A single glance at the lyrics book would show this entire song is based off of a song Bear and Fox have whilst riding the Ferris wheel at Asbury Park. But once the listener takes the time to appreciate the song, it becomes more than just a conversation between two fictional characters at a carnival. The song seems to chronicle the misfortune of the narrator’s love life and subsequent thoughts of suicide. Fox’s Dream is without a doubt one of the better songs to be found in the entire mewithoutYou catalog.
I feel as though there is a need to at least mention every song, because every song contains parts that just flat out manage to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Be it the climatic ending of “Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes” or the ominous tone of “East Enders Wives”, every single song manages to find a way to captivate listeners throughout the intricate and detailed journey through the lives of Fox, Bear, Tiger and the entire bevy of fascinating animals who had the misfortune to be passengers on the woeful train.
