AP.net Respins

Some albums speak louder than their words. Some albums' words speak louder than their music. Some albums, well, border which grabs the listener more, the lyrics or the instrumentation. For mewithoutYou, Catch For Us the Foxes not only turned heads amongst listeners and artists alike for its content, it put the band in a category all their own.

There is a mood across Catch For Us the Foxes unlike any other. It's dark and inwardly uncomfortable. There's so much hope, but it's masked under the heavy beats of drummer Rickie Mazzotta as he hits like heart murmurs maneuvering through vocalist Aaron Weiss' poetic delivery. Weiss acts less a frontman and more a town crier to a community latched onto every word of faith, hope, troubles and depression.

From the drive of "January 1979," where Weiss crams in a wordy story to how "The Soviet" crescendos into something special worth every goose bump up the crawl of your arm, the band floors the mind and floats the heart if its listeners. For some, the songs capture instrumentally, to others it's the lyrical content holding more worth. Songs like "Disaster Tourism" and "My Exit, Unfair" don't contain cheap opening riffs, instead they sound a bit more like smart little anti-breakdowns that set the mood and imagery.

Speaking of cheap, passion is something that is just thrown around these days, but listening to the closing "Carousels" and "Son of Widow," passion is defined not only by heartfelt words of Weiss but by the listener getting through his knack for storytelling and how uneasy it may be to follow. I'm not a grand writer able to capture that feeling through words, but I think there is an understanding of that "passion" amongst fans of the band.

Catch For Us the Foxes shows that some bands have the gall to try new things and some bands will continue to do the same and fade away. The album still holds up almost a decade later. As for its lyrical undertones, those can be debated amongst friends and family, but there's no argument that mewithoutYou set a bar with their sophomore release. To this day, I can't even tell you a band or album that sounds anything "like it," past or present. That says a lot with how many similar RIYL you see these days.

Originally Posted by nellson13

Is this a new weekly column?

reformatting this...

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=1522011

Originally Posted by nellson13

OK. Real cool. I like this new title better, though.

that's something that was under discussion. i.e. the first line I put in the news post. haha.

Originally Posted by MelissaMDaniels

hauntingly powerful

I think that sums it up right there.

Originally Posted by DcS

Atheist fan here. The lyrics on the mwY albums are so well written that even if you know they're based on / sourced from / associated with faith and religion they are beautiful enough that you can get your own meaning out of them if you don't connect with them. Or at very least, appreciate the beautiful writing and understand where he was coming from when he wrote them. Amazing band (even though I'm not into the newest album).

i think you summed it up brotha. nice.