mewithoutYou - Brother, Sister
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Free Music Notes for Brother, Sister
Free Music Review: Grew on me
Hit: 5 Stars
When I first listened to this CD I was felt that they were softer than I expected, but once I decided to simply listen to it for what it had, I was amazed.
This CD has a relaxed, sophisticated feel to it which makes is great for doing homework/studying or just simply relaxing.
There is nothing new I can really add to the reviews of this CD (Clearly most people really like it), it is just simply great...really great.
Free Music Review: "You see my coins are counterfeit, but you accept them anyway."
Hit: 5 Stars
I cannot remember a band's first three albums each being so individually distinct and yet each so completely successful. `Brother Sun Sister Moon' is a more accessible album than `Catch for us the Foxes' or `A-->B'. My wife liked it by her third time through (where it probably took 20 listens and a concert for her to lukewarm up to Foxes). I have started giving it as a gift to those who I think might not put in the solid six to ten listens it took me to fall in love with MWY's earlier stuff. Catch for us the Foxes remains my favorite album but Brother Sun Sister Moon takes a close second place
Gone are the ubiquitous references to suicide in favor allusions to gardening, soil and spiders. Aaron seems oddly at home in more mature, settled themes and the musical style is softer and makes increased use of a thing other artists like to call melody. From the opening sounds of a soft but building rainfall it was clear that we were getting yet another experimental album, and we were better off for it. Honestly, the tone was very Franciscan, if you will (damaged but life giving spirituality, animals as messengers of beauty and hard, rewarding work in the soil) as its title might suggest. Yet there is still plenty of the gruff, disorienting syncopated poetry that made me fall in love with Foxes. I think it is the lovely strangeness of the style that gives these CD's the refreshing quality of inexhaustible listenability.
Messes of Men is my run away favorite song, a painfully insightful track about restlessness and contentment, through an uncannily successful metaphor. In a Sweater Poorly Nit is next (see excerpt below). Cminor is a deeply spiritual song with painfully honest lyrics. I love that Aaron can weave poetry about a little mouse, his lonely father and his sexuality (or lack there of) into a single beautiful verse. In a market Dimly Lit has many of the best lines. There really isn't a bad song on the CD. I recommend it highly.
you're a door without a key,
a field without a fence
you made a holy fool of me
and I've thanked you ever since.
if she comes circling back
we'll end where we'd begun
like two pennies on the train track
the train crushed into one
or if I'm a crown without a king,
if I'm a broken open seed
if I come without a thing,
then I come with all I need
-Sweater Poorly Knit
Free Music Review: Another great album
Hit: 5 Stars
Good album.
Lots of stuff already said in previous reviews.
It's simply great band.
I am waiting for more albums to come...
Free Music Review: a good album
Hit: 4 Stars
I've been a fan of mewithoutYou for almost two years now. I got "Catch For Us The Foxes" and liked it. I bought this album not really expecting much improvement, but let me tell you, mewithoutYou has made leaps and bounds between the two records. This album stands as a cohesive album rather than just 13 rock songs randomly thrown together, which is what "Foxes" sort of felt like at times. This album is full of experimentation, as there are more instruments, more singing, even vocal harmonizing, new and creative rhythms--it's really a dramatic improvement in the band's sound. The lyrics are as sharp as ever, managing to be poetic and accessible at the same time.
The only drawback to this album is that Aaron Weiss, the singer, can be very irritating if you don't buy into what he's saying. Not that he's spreading propaganda or preaching fire and brimstone, but he's just very open and honest, and makes himself so emotionally vulnerable that it's hard to listen to if you can't let yourself become vulnerable along with him. Yeah, I know it sounds dumb. But it's the truth. This album will turn you off if you won't let it under your skin.
So, if you're prepared to let yourself be carried away wherever the album takes you, then by all means, buy it. Even if you're not prepared to hear Aaron bare all his emotions, you can probably still get it and let it grow on you.
I recommend this album.
Free Music Review: mewithoutYou gets even better, incredibly
Hit: 5 Stars
I almost hesitate to describe the songs on mewithoutYou's new album, Brother, Sister--it feels like spoiling a movie or revealing the ending of a book, as if I might take away some of the magic by telling too much. On the other hand, the depth and originality of the release are things I could rant about for pages. The album, which takes its title from a prayer of Francis of Assisi, has the same humble beauty one would expect from the title. Religion here isn't something to put into songs to evangelize or too appease a fan-base, but an integral part of life that is expressed with the same honesty you'd expect when talking about any other topic.
And the music! The music makes even the simplest lines (like "Open wide the door, my Lord / to whatever makes me love you more" from "C-minor") into heart-rending pleas. Besides the effect-laden guitar parts, you'll hear a harp, flugelhorns (courtesy of Anathallo), and more, all forming a lovely sonic palette that complements deep lyrics. This is an album where the lyrics wouldn't be the same without the music and the music wouldn't be the same without the lyrics.
The album starts quietly. Aaron Weiss almost mumbles the lyrics, "`I do not exist,' we faithfully insist, sailing in our separate ships and in each tiny caravel. Tiring of trying, there's a necessary dying, like a horseshoe crab in its proper season sheds it shell." Reaching a certain point, an acoustic guitar comes in strumming. Ship bells ring, giving the track's nautical feel an appropriate flavor without sounding at all cheesy. It ends with the superbly memorable lines, "If ever you come near, I'll hold up high a mirror / Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you."
Not to say it's all so mellow. "O'Porcupine" is a rousing rock song that ends on an optimistic note--"In our darkness a light shines / and all I wanna say is that that light is God / and though I might've been mistaken on this or that point / that light is God."
The album ends with a lovely finale (one that I won't spoil for you) and closes. If you're like me, you'll turn it on again when it's done.