mewithoutyou: [untitled] (2018)

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mewithoutyou-untitled/

Just a 7.5? Brad?

a) that is a sparkling review of a sparkling album brad
b) the 7.5 a dissonant with a glowing review like this

my hands were tied

That's a shame. Guess they're not really 'on brand' though, are they? Maybe they should rap more

enjoyed the review btw

I love them. The album is fantastic. They have a substantial following in the alternative evangelical scene (e.g. they worked with Daniel Smith and released on Tooth & Nail).

The spoken vocals on "Another Head for the Hydra" were reminding me a lot of the... something.
Then it struck me -- Steve Wynn's vocals at the end of "Until Lately" (on the Dream Syndicate's first album).

also thanks everyone <3

anyone listening want a brain washed like mine

His writing is dense, but the density is the point of the project; he is trying to convey the totality of not knowing.

From yr review Brad, this boils it down for me in a way. I couldn't have expressed it anymore succinct and otm than this.

PS. notwithstanding the inexplicable comparison of 'New Wine, New Skins' to B&S's 'The State I Am In'! I do not get that at all, as much as I would like to (but I don't have a lyric sheet at hand).

imo musically, the first half of “new wine” could credibly be a b&s song imo, just the most depressing sounding b&s song ever. he also literally mentions the song in the lyrics

Was already loving this, but Brad's review + reading some of the lyrics have opened it up even more. (I certainly hadn't made the B+S connection but yeah it's right there in the lyrics and I can hear it too now I'm paying attention.)

Also August 6th should be on the album. But I always play the EP straight after the album anyway so it's not really a problem.

xp I see now, that's p neat.

while all hiding inside our painting-of-a-house-hung-up-inside- that same-painted-house-which-ever-implies-another-painted-house-inside lives,
serpent-in-the-sky-lives!
servants-of-the-least-high!
most-tortoiseless lives!
would you meet me sometime soon, son, down by the riverside?
there’s room enough in my paradise,
my empty little mind

Mind-blowing stuff.

i really wanted to quote the "painting-of-a-house" line in my review but i figured it'd get cut immediately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7atskemhUpw

i really enjoyed this but i've loved this guy's art for forever now

I'm completely in the hold of this album, it's got a firm grip on me, up to the point where I need to tell myself to mind the dosage.

Weiss' vocals are mixed in such a muddled and ethereal way, it feels so out of reach that I want, nay desire to come closer ever more, reach even more, listen harder. Man.

How quickly I went from thinking this album was pretty good to listening to it at least 5 times a day...

ok still need to give this a listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qoBVRoboc4

i love this band

What a video/song

Fantastic song, great video, but not entirely convinced about the combination of the two.

i have listened to it so many times but "julia" still knocks me out. enormous, chasmal song

I'm contemplating seeing a doctor because I've had Flee Thou Matadors stuck in my head for 2 weeks

would like to encourage everyone to vote for "julia" in the tracks poll

i got my copy of this the other day and it sounds great and is still my album of the year and it's not even close

ill vote for it.

how's this bands back catelog?

Don't worry - both 'Julia' and the album will be my #1. I don't expect to hear anything better in the coming weeks.

how's this bands back catelog?

― Celtoes Adidas (Spottie), Wednesday, December 12, 2018 11:58 AM (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a b life: fine, promising post-hardcore record produced by j. robbins, don't really sound like themselves yet, some jams still
catch for us the foxes: total classic post-hardcore record, top to bottom amazing riffs and lyrics, and yet
brother, sister: this one is even better and was their best record until [untitled] came out imo, headfirst dive into hooks, every song like a short story, a real capital-A Album
it's all crazy: sometimes i don't know if i like this one but the second side is weirdly the darkest music they've ever made, but the neutral milk hotel/decemberists cosplay is, idk, you gotta be in the mood
ten stories: low key my favorite before [untitled] came out, the tunefulness of it's all crazy but they're developing a new style under it which isn't quite straight post-hardcore or indie rock but wavers between both
pale horses: really great record about the apocalypse that also sounds like it, low key my other favorite before [untitled] came out

Will def vote 'Julia' in my top 3. Same with the album tbh.

Thanks Brad for back catalogue insights <3

low-key thanks brad :) I'll start with brother, sister.

a fish swims in the sea while the sea is in a certain sense contained within the fish!
oh what am i to think
what the writing of a thousand lifetimes could not explain
if all the forest trees were pens, and all the oceans — ink?

that songs is stellar. that ^ little breakdown was unexpected... actually the chorus goes to a pretty unexpected place as well.

his voice has taken some getting used to but now i love it.

i always forget about the dubby ending of "the sun and the moon"

brother, sister actually feels like an album lj would yell at me for not telling him about, but also i can't figure out if he would actually like it or not

his voice has taken some getting used to but now i love it.

― тпсбlack (Spottie), Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:32 AM (thirty seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brother, sister iirc was the first time he really sang and it's... pretty rough in spots still, even for me, someone who is extremely used to his voice. but i also think he's really come into his own as a singer on the last two records, he sounds wonderful on untitled despite not having a traditionally good voice at all

would like to encourage everyone to vote for "julia" in the tracks poll

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, December 12, 2018 6:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

funny cause 'Julia' would be my #01 if it weren't for a certain Faith/Void track :)

I would just like to note that the defacto punk/hardcore venue in Toronto is in fact called Faith/Void. in case anyone was thinking of touring...

re: the back catalogue question I started with it's all crazy and loved it, but that left me in for kind of a surprise when I decided to listen to part 1 of "Bullet to Binary". It was a neat way to go about it, though, like getting the sell on Weiss' lyrical/religious worldview in the most whimsical context possible and then seeing him dial it up to 11 with varying degrees of whimsy still intact

Get Faith/Void a resident club night there ffs! xp

brother, sister iirc was the first time he really sang and it's... pretty rough in spots still, even for me, someone who is extremely used to his voice. but i also think he's really come into his own as a singer on the last two records, he sounds wonderful on untitled despite not having a traditionally good voice at all

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:36 AM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

his voice does the travis morrison dismemberment plan thing sometimes but less annoyingly so imo.

these guys know how to end a song ay

their drummer, rickie mazzotta, seems good. i like when they rock out the best.

keep coming back to this album having never given the band a chance, and i'm only now diving into the lyrics. thanks for posting this and writing them up for the 'fork, Brad, as well as giving some tips on where to go next with them. the dynamic shifts and little micro-prog stuff are really doing a lot for my anxiety.

tbh it took me two months to get to love this-- was new to the band & i'd heard "hydra" & the opening track first, was esp wowed by the flexibility of the vocal line on the latter, & expected more in that vein (besides "wendy & betsy"). now i love the cyclical progression thru diffusion&accumulation & how the suspension&sprawl is consistently used to textural ends & what austinb mentioned & hopefully people checking it out now will get it p quickly &

still have that initial itch though so spottie's comment xp has me looking forward to prev albums

aw eric i'm so glad you got into this

btw it's the

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqhysYaktfM

said insect was mechanized

Hoping this does really well in the poll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfvJOf8vSJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fzE7gWi4k

pic.twitter.com/qPZXZt3sjt

— mewithoutYou (@mewithoutYou) October 20, 2019

my condolences to brad in this period of mourning

lol

rip my favorite band ;_;

I guess it makes sense to stop after delivering an untoppable album

nooooo. I do hope they play the UK before they quit.

I was coming back to this album a lot in the last few days and getting increasingly fascinated by it. Started reading the lyrics (which are still hard to focus on when listening a lot of the time ime) and, yeah, they're astoundingly dense and hard to understand, which, as noted above, seems to be the point. I thought there might be a lot of pomo irony going on but, reading more interviews with Weiss, guy actually seems pretty earnest about his spiritual inclinations and has a genuine Sufi upbringing, which makes it more interesting. Tried to actually sing "Julia" to figure out how the voice is working with the guitars and realized that he sings right at the very bottom of my (and his, judging from live clips) range - that low G is the lowest note I can sing and I really need to relax to get it consistently - but it means he's generally singing under the guitars, unlike most rock arrangements, while the other guys double him an octave higher when they join in.

(None of that is really meant to be revelatory; just my experiences with the album)

said insect was mechanized

MARIA [the mad]:
I ran to the sea but the sea wouldn’t hide me
The oceans agree there was no one to hide!
Will my story give way to the weight of its gravity?
~self-appointed-cop-and-spokesman-of-the-end-times~
FERDINAND [to the smell of blood]:
Knockneed step and a bent-back spine
No sense of direction besides...
MARIA [unfazed]:
Patterns in the clouds over lake Cascade!
Message in the sounds of the Air Force planes!
[offers claims on an extravagant scale in
Elaborate (if laminated poster board) display about chemtrails]
Tinky’s harp on the wall next to Janis Joplin!
FERDINAND [intoxicated with purple]:
Man, I coulda sworn that I saw
The cosmos in the livestock straw...
MARIA [neither pious nor deranged]:
Early cartography sea creature dragon and all?

I've listened to this 1 million times and I'm still blown away

out beyond ideas
of right and wrong is a field
will i meet you there?

through the eyes of machines viewed immaculate scenes that had already passed me by
all the stars on the ground, noah's ark in the clouds, but the thought in the back of my mind:
"does my misery feed a metaphysical need that's long since passed me by
neither reasoning why nor offering reply?"