Untitled

Spiritually Depressing

I'm not a spiritual person, but that doesn't mean I can't engage with others about religion or any kind of spiritual beliefs. I actually find that oftentimes it can be fascinating. This was my experience delving into mewithoutyou's final LP, [untitled].

I am only kind of familiar with this group as of writing this, I have only heard a couple records and only casually. Meaning, the lyrical aspect of the music has not grabbed my attention as much as it has in this project.

[Untitled] was carefully assembled out of 30 or so songs, only 12 of which wound up here on the project. The others were placed on an EP also titled [untitled].

Let's talk about the readily noticeable aspects of the record first: the musicianship. It's a post-hardcore record through and through. With it's distorted playing, manic and anxious compositions, and hushed vocal deliveries one might confuse this record for later era Brand New, with a more apocalyptic overtone. The record's flow is wonderfully crafted. Rising and falling like waves in an ocean, everything feels purposefully done to achieve an artistic goal. A type of cohesion I feel is not too common these days.

Upon further listens I became obsessed with the themes of the songs. Aaron Weiss's buried vocals and his hurried and hushed lyrical delivery was intriguing, as I took a dive into the lyrics to discover... this was waaay waywayway over my head. Not in a "I'm too stupid to understand this" kind of way. More like "he's expressing things I've never even considered and I need a moment".

The common theme, to boil it down (or attempt to) is Aaron struggling within himself, mentally and spiritually. In the opening track we are alluded to a roadside revelatory experience that Weiss remains vague about for the whole album. One can guess at what he saw, but as the songs progress and you piece together his lyical puzzles you get a feel for his plight. Our savior is trying to return but we are not ready for him. This leads to thoughts of apocalypse, salvation, different kinds of faith, skepticism towards god, all different kinds of spiritual conundrums that are cleverly and intricately alluded to if one is astute enough to unravel the stories.

Musically and physically this album is already fantastic, but within the music lies deep struggle and a buffet's worth of food for thought. The icing on the cake is that this is the group's final project. If you watch the music video for "Julia" then all too clear and ominously the message makes itself known.

This record is spiritually depressed.

"Holy to the LORD" on the bells of horses
Safely on the shore we sank like stones
To the bottom of a made up ocean"