After the towering success of Brother, Sister, mewithoutYou
decided to take their music in a different direction. Their guitarist
Christopher Kleinberg left the band to pursue a career in medicine,
but would occasionally play shows with them when he wasn't in school.
Not only did they lose a member and become a 4 piece band, but 2009
saw the release of It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a
Dream! It's Alright, their fourth album that seemed to all but
abandon their previous hardcore rock style. It takes a noticeable
more folk-rock direction and the lyrics tell animal parables rather
than musing on the struggles of the modern man. Perhaps they did
exorcise their demons at the end of Brother, Sister. While
some of their fans of their early work found themselves alienated and
even betrayed by this strangely happy turn for the band, I don't feel
like it came from nowhere.
Much of the groundwork
for this album was laid out by Brother, Sister in a number of
ways. First, musically they were already transitioning away from
their old style in favour for something lighter. Not only did they
use different instrumentation, but they explored a different range of
emotions apart from angst. Also, like I mentioned in my last review,
it felt like their sound had reached its apex and their depressed
hardcore style and story had come to a logical conclusion in the song
“O, Porcupine.” Perhaps if they were to continue, it would be
like beating a dead horse. So, the way I felt when I heard this genre
shift, it was surprising, but not really jarring.
It helps that they open
with “Every Thought A Thought Of You” which, although it
relatively tame compared to most of their work up until this point,
still has a decent rock edge. It wouldn't be too out of place on
Brother, Sister. The next song, “The Fox, The Crow and The
Cookie” jumps head first into the folk style, not just in style but
in spirit. It tells a story of a cunning fox and cocky crow as they
unwittingly team up on a pastry salesman. It's a fun tune and I enjoy
it immensely. What I mean about them channelling the spirit of folk
music is that music has roots in story telling and parables told
through animals is a long withstanding tradition. This captures that
perfectly as does the following song “The Angel of Death Came To
David's Room,” which literally tells the story of David in the
Bible. Also, very traditional using repetition to have a very
communal feel, as if it were a campfire song in which everyone can
join in the singing.
The main connection to
their previous material is the song “Bullets To Binary (Pt. 2)”
which is connected to the original “Bullets To Binary” on [A→B]
Life.
It begins much the same as the original, though a much more acoustic
feel. Unless you hear them right by one another, the link may not be
that obvious. It is one of the only moments in the album where Aaron
Weiss sings in his shouting poetic style, though a much more tame
version of it. The song actually evolves quite a bit as it
progresses as it turns into a dramatic chanting. It's a little bit of
a darker song than what's on most of the album, though it's not all
lighthearted fair here. Actually, maybe I'm crazy, but at times it
feels like there is sadness to a number of songs. “Fig With A
Bellyache” and “The King Beetle On A Coconut Estate” seem silly
on a superficial level, but emotionally I feel that there is a lot
more going on here.
I think it's safe to say that this is their most obviously Christian
album that they've released. It's not that they've been trying to
hide it before, because they haven't, but it seems like the lyrics
are the most unabashed worshipful at times. At the end of the song
“Timothy Hay” he repeats “what a beautiful God there must be”
and the final song "Allah, Allah, Allah" is about how you
can see God in every blade of grass any in all of creation, though
they use the name Allah, which is interesting and more musical
sounding I suppose.
It's
All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright
is a curious album and a very different side of mewithoutYou. I
don't think that the more rigid fans of the band will enjoy it.
Conversely people who may not like mewithoutYou generally might find
they do enjoy this album. It's a great opportunity to broaden their
fan base. At the very least, I can appreciate that they wanted to do
something different and they did it. And yeah, they made a folk-rock
album very well. And who are we to say what direction a band can or
cannot go in? I personally don't mind when a band defies my
expectations and throws me something dramatically different. If they feel that they need to explore different avenues to satisfy
themselves creatively then we still can get sincere and artistically
credible music. I feel that they delivered. That being said, it is a
significantly less ambitious album than its predecessor Brother,
Sister and
perhaps intentionally so, but as such it is less satisfying. I guess
that's the burden of being the followup to a masterpiece.
It's
All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright's
change of direction did leave me wondering where mewithoutYou would
go next. Now that they opened the door for them to explore completely
new genres and themes in their music, they really could go anywhere
they wanted from here. Like it or hate it, this is exciting.
3.5 Stars
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