Review Summary: mewithoutYou create a classic post-hardcore/indie album, write poetry, and promote religious tolerance by showing the way themselves.
Brother, Sister has always been a record that has eluded me to some extent. I could write about its massive scope and unparalleled lyrical depth for days without even scratching the surface of what it all means. I’ve also always had certain reservations about reviewing Christian bands – not because of what they stand for, but because the message is already abundantly clear and there’s little to be gained from additional interpretation. However, there’s a considerable difference between a
Christian band and a
spiritual band, of which I’d classify mewithoutYou as both. Their music utilizes a number of metaphors and allusions that are undeniably – proudly, in fact – Christian, but the messages conveyed apply to a very wide spectrum of ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In other words, they aren’t closed-minded. Lead singer Aaron Weiss sings in Arabic about Allah on multiple occasions, and they not only acknowledge other religions, but admire and appreciate them. A lot of their works could even be thought of as fables, in the sense that they don’t necessarily have to affiliate with a particular mindset in order to convey a thought. Every song that this band has ever written, even outside the covers of
Brother, Sister, contains a message – and if it doesn’t have an important meaning, mewithoutYou typically doesn’t write about it. That’s just how they conduct themselves, and they’ve resultantly pieced together a lyrical discography that I would argue is as valuable to our generation as Bob Dylan and John Lennon were to theirs. No, they don’t lament the fallacies of war…and they’re actually the ideological opposite of Lennon’s atheist dream ‘Imagine’; but within the niche of spirituality, existentialism, and general inspiration for life, it’s difficult to come by any artist who covers it all as well as mewithoutYou. It is for such reasons that I’ve always found
Brother, Sister to be borderline indescribable – not only because its lyrics can be interpreted under so many different contexts, but also because I’m not a nearly talented enough writer to chronicle everything that this particular piece entails.
Brother, Sister is mewithoutYou’s crowning achievement, and amidst the passionate shouting, extremely wise lyrics, and urgent instrumental backing, we’re left with one of the most elaborately composed indie/post-hardcore releases of all time.
The main draw to this album is indisputably the lyrics. If you aren’t an aficionado of wordplay and metaphors, then
Brother, Sister’s appeal will be extremely limited. There are still excellent instrumental contributions made throughout the album, but they don’t necessarily exceed works by the band’s contemporaries – or even themselves, for that matter. Front man Aaron Weiss dictates the flow of the album with his voice and his pen, and both do an exemplary job of taking a comparatively average musical piece and turning it into an instant classic. Let’s start with Weiss’ voice. During mewithoutYou’s earlier releases, his contributions adhered primarily to shouting and screaming, and it matched the raw context of albums like
A:B Life and
Catch For Us The Foxes – both of which were much more heavily rooted in the post-hardcore sound upon which mewithoutYou was founded. As mewithoutYou progressed through their discography, so did Weiss in his evolution from shouting to a more melodic vocal approach.
Shouting is the right word, too, as most of what he does qualifies as spewing messages loudly at an urgent pace, almost like a prophet trying to warn the world of impending doom. This trait is captured perfectly in ‘Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)’, in which Weiss proclaims “one day the water’s gonna wash it away, and on that day nothing clever to say.” His earnestness is never in question, and that’s a credit to his talent for conveying emotion on a primitive human level. It’s a skill he has always been armed with, and even though he sings almost as much as he shouts on
Brother, Sister, the intense moments haven’t lost any of the fire that we’ve heard on previous burners like ‘Bullet to Binary’ and ‘January 1979.’ Over time he has used moderation to sculpt his voice as a tool that’s both powerful and soft, and when he ratchets up the intensity
now, the effect is even more mind-blowing. Further to his credit, Weiss knows exactly when and how to change his vocal approach, keeping perfect stride with the mood of the song at all times. Take a quieter moment, such as the curtain-opening ‘Messes of Men’, for instance, and you’ll hear his voice crack with the slightest bit of doubt as he contemplatively recites “I do not exist, we faithfully insist.” Then, as the song steps up its tempo about halfway through and changes its tone from philosophizing to commentating on sin in human nature, “we keep our confessions long and when we pray we keep it short”, you’ll hear him sound slightly more emphatic and dire. For every emotion conveyed, Aaron Weiss has a corresponding vocal inflection and lyrical passage that gives
Brother, Sister a total sense of unity.
While Aaron Weiss’ vocal skills do enough in themselves to elevate
Brother, Sister, it is truly his wit and lyricism that puts it in a class of its own. There have already been an abundance of clever lines put on display, but they mean rather little without the proper context. Short of writing out the entire album’s lyrics, there’s no real way to encapsulate just how much meaning is carried within the intangible walls of every song. ‘A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains’ holds one of my personal favorites though, in which Weiss exclaims, “Like peacocks wandering the walkways of the zoo, who have twice the autonomy the giraffes and tigers do, saying
no one can stop me, no one clips my claws…now everyone watches me scale these outside walls.” There’s a number of ways to take this, obviously, but I always interpreted it as a warning against the arrogance and boastfulness of modern society. Many of us represent the peacocks, strutting proudly and taunting the less fortunate. Weiss follows that passage up with the line from the song title, “a glass can only spill what it contains”, which refers to the fact that you can’t bring forth what you do not possess within. Those who are well-versed in the Bible will also connect this to when Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”, basically meaning that if you are boastful and pretend to be humble, your words will show your hypocrisy. The same applies to those who are evil who pretend to be good, etc. Aaron Weiss uses religion to convey a lesson that applies to any human being, although this is just one example out of many. There are several references to straying from one’s faith, like ‘The Sun & The Moon’, in which Weiss details his infractions, “mine’s been a vivid story dimly remembered, and by the hundredth time it’s told, halfway true…of bad behavior well engendered, what good is each good thing we think we do”, compares it to the Bible’s Daniel and Peter, “Daniel broke the king’s decree, Peter stepped from the ship to the sea”, and then ultimately wishes to find his way, “There was hope for Job like a cut down tree, I hope that there’s such hope for me.” Included in this, almost inconspicuously, is the common notion that good intentions don’t equate to good deeds. You don’t have to be religious at all to follow the idea, as it also conforms to well-known literary references such as “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” In short, it’s often assumed that there are bad people and good people, when in reality most human beings mean well and their fortunes vary according to the outcomes of their actions. Weiss tops it off with the line, “our parents have made so many mistakes, but may we forgive them and forgive ourselves…the sun and the moon are my Father’s eyes.”
mewithoutYou doesn’t use Christianity as their only religious platform, either. Weiss can be found singing the praises of Allah on ‘The Dryness And The Rain’, in which he proclaims “
nastagh-firuka ya Hokan, ya Dhal-Jalah wal-Ikram, Isa ruhu-lah 'alaihis-salat was-salam, ya Halim, ya Qahhar, ya Muntaqim, ya Ghaffar! la Ilaha ilallahu, Allahu Akbar” which loosely translates to the many names given, including “judge”, “avenger”, and “forgiver” (among others) before trailing off with the more well-known “there is no god but Allah....” Once again, mewithoutYou’s willingness to respect other religions and even promote them as
not evil (like many lesser Christian groups might do) is what allows them to cross the boundary between “a religious band” and spiritually wise philosophers. He can also be found singing about Jesus
in Arabic, when he sings, “Isa ruhu-lah 'alaihis-salat was-salam” – or
Jesus is the soul of God, may peace be upon Him. In essence, Weiss is well-versed in religion period – not just Christianity. The detailed stories, religious allusions, and life lessons go on seemingly forever, so at a certain point it just becomes necessary to listen to the album in order to gain the full effect that comes with his versatility and all the accompanying references that he’s able to make. mewithoutYou even has a line for my own long-winded explanation, to quote: “the writing of a thousand lifetimes could not explain; if all the forest trees were pens and all the oceans ink.”
In terms of motifs, there is an obvious ongoing one that comes in the form of the spider saga. It’s worth mentioning separately from the main body of lyrics because it captures the running
loss of innocence theme present throughout
Brother, Sister. Out of the three tracks, ‘Yellow Spider’ comes first, illustrating the bliss of having complete faith (before doubt ever has a chance to overtake one’s thoughts): “you made this world to look so nice, I wonder what the next one's like…yellow spider, yellow leaf confirms my deepest held belief.” Four songs later, ‘Orange Spider’ begins to call everything into question through a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the way we treat nuisance animals, “a note we wrote the other day, to any mice who pass this way on crumbed and sugared counter top:
we must insist your traffic STOP…in their defense, they don't refuse, but nonetheless we've come to use snapping traps and poison beans, and far less diplomatic means.” The implication is that we see fit to eliminate inconvenience from our lives using any and all means, but what of the lives we’re ending to maintain our all-important comfort? Finally, ‘Brownish Spider’ completes the transition, “no more spider, no more leaf…no more me, no more belief.” Of all the lines on
Brother, Sister, that might be the most shocking considering the obvious Christian values underlying the majority of the album. However, as I said before, mewithoutYou aren’t your typical Christian band – they’re also a spiritual band that understands many people are
raised to believe certain things, and then realize that life isn’t what they were told by their parents, church, etc.; and must go through these hardships, perhaps even straying from their faith completely, before they can ever make their own choice concerning whether or not to return.
mewithoutYou isn’t your typical band and
Brother, Sister is not your typical album. That much is an obvious understatement. It might be best described as poetry scored by a blend of indie and post-hardcore music. For ninety-nine bands out of one hundred, this approach would fall flat on its face. However, the skill level of every band member, particularly Aaron Weiss, makes it work in a way that quite frankly can’t be duplicated. Even the “poetry” consisting of fables, Bible lessons, life lessons, and overall good advice is sometimes told from the strangest of angles, and they really want to see if the listener is paying attention or just floating through the music. There are few bands that will inspire you, make you think, and keep you on your toes the way that mewithoutYou does. On
Brother, Sister, they find themselves steeply rooted in the religion of their choice, yet transcending those boundaries in every way to have an impact on listeners who believe in a different God or maybe even no God at all. I'm once again reminded of the line "one day the water's gonna wash it away." Perhaps in the future, races, nations, and other denominations won't be so harshly divided and we will all learn to accept and respect one another the way that mewithoutYou does. This is a band with a dream, and even though they're Christian - while Lennon was an atheist and Dylan denied any religious affiliation - I'd like to think they all wanted the same things. Equality. Religious tolerance. Rights for everyone, regardless of their beliefs. In a way, they're kindred spirits linking multiple generations through a push for worldwide acceptance, love, and peace. mewithoutYou carry this generation's lyrical torch, and as long as they continue to inspiring themselves and others with their message, the world will be a better place.
