What is the best thing about mewithoutYou? Is it the roll-off-the-tongue, story-book like lyrics? Aaron Wiess’ nasally lulling vocals? The unique array of instruments and sounds that make cameos from song to song? Or is it something we have yet to come to terms with because the combination of the listed is too overpowering to allow further analyzation? Well, whatever it is, it’s happened again. It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright, is the newest chapter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s mewithoutYou. Back once again on Tooth & Nail Records, brothers Aaron and Michael Weiss, Greg Jehanian, and Rickie Mazzotta have composed a work of art. This one’s not just an album, but a great work of poetry with an orchestraic entourage. The album opens with “Every thought a Thought of You,” with a carnival like synth, and happy, upbeat bass and drums, something slightly different for mwY. The jubilant air continues in “the Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie,” a track that will first make you feel like you won your blue gingerbread man two spots forward up Gumdrop Mountain. A deeper look tells a lyrically captivating story of a baker, a pilfering fox and a selfish crow (insert metaphor discussion here). Lyrics like “I’ve got a walnut brownie brain/ And molasses in my veins/ Crushed graham cracker crust/ My powdered sugared funnel cake cocaine/ Let the crescent cookie rise/ These carob colored almond eyes/ Would rest to see my cashewed princess/ In the swirling marble sky” are just a glimpse into this track’s (and album’s) mind blowing words. A line-up of sounds which include a number of strings, keys, bells and a tuba give this song a Sgt. Pepper like feel. “Goodbye, I” is more flowy, resembling the softer sounds of Brother, Sister or Catch Us For The Foxes. Full of even more metaphors involving animals and elements, this one is another precisely crafted entity. The latter half of the album is darker and more acoustic. “bullet to Binary (pt. two)” comes in as a sequel to [A→B] Life’s part one. The song begins the same as its older brother with the lyrics “Let us die!/ Let us die!/ And in dying we reply,” but instead of shifting into French filled un-metaphorical hard rock, pt. two consists of more food references placed poetically with choral vocals “all the time, everyone, everywhere, everything.” The album closes with “Allah, Allah, Allah,” a soft acoustic following the story of its namesake. With another Beatles like instrumental breakdown, the final track, filled with harmonies, clapping, snapping, and ooo-ings ends the album with the title’s lyrics “Everywhere we look/ It's all crazy/ It's all false/ It's all a dream/ It's alright/ Everywhere we look.” This album is lyrically their most symbolic, musically their farthest off the beaten path, but overall one of their best. Though mewithoutYou has strayed a long way from the sounds of their first album, the road they have wandered down has pushed them to be better than ever. When listening to this album anything goes. Ponder the deeper meaning of the brilliantly written metaphors, or simply picture some kind of fairytale from your childhood, either way the from-the-heart, meaningful lyrics of mewithoutYou will leave you wanting more even if its crazy, false, or just all a dream.
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