mewithoutYou Band • Page 131

“Julia” is in the conversation for my fav on that album. Probably is my fav, though “Winter Solstice” is up there, too.

“Wendy & Betsy” is fucking dope, too.

 

The last two albums have some great apocalyptic songs. Been listening to them a lot and re-reading Station Eleven through this time.

 

Julia is definitely my favourite song on that album. Still don't really like the EP much.

 

The entire second half of [Untitled] is unreal to me. Whole thing from Tortoises onward just feels like the grand finale of the fireworks display that is their discography.

 

this is so true. the stretch or tortoises through break on through is masterclass.

also o porcupine is their best song. just wanna be in a pit with my friends when those drums kick in.

 

Julia doesn’t do anything for me and that’s rare for this band

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t say it doesn’t do anything for me but it’s bottom half.

 

This is correct.

 

I think I'm pretty settled at this point on "Fox's Dream" being their top song for me, in spite of being on an album that's (really good, but) not in their top 3, maybe not top 4 (Ten Stories & Brother, Sister compete for that #4 spot).

"O Porcupine" rules but isn't even quite my favorite on that album. Sorry, but, like, "Messes of Men," y'know.

 

idk the solo in Julia is one of Mike's best, the faux shoegazey thing Yip sometimes does w the production really works here for a song like this played by a band w a more extreme set of dynamics. and it just plain slaps. def one of my faves. don't know what it's about tho. but the lyrics are great anyway

 

As long as it’s not on their first two EP’s, I don’t think there’s a song of theirs that I would roll my eyes at if someone said it was their favorite.

 

yeah untitled is the first mwy album that I just cannot fucking parse lmao

 

Oh yeah I revisited TS the other week, and man it holds up still. Fox, and Bear are probably my fav mwY “current” era songs. Those horns on Bear esp

 

I think he’s legit so abstract at this point that it’s clear his mind is slipping some.

 

yeah, i think i half got pale horses and half didn't. knowing what drove the record as a whole helps me interpret that one but for the most part i think the lyrics are just as oblique on that one. untitled is a semiotic dream/nightmare lol like the stage directions and stuff in some of the lyrics? they're evocative though so i don't think they fail to communicate necessarily, it's just a kinda weird turn for a lyricist who was so focused on meaning for so long.

 

I dunno, Untitled felt from the start to me like the fullest realization of a journey that can be traced through at least the two prior albums, if not further. Aaron's been obsessed w/ what can & can't be known, & Untitled is through & through the culmination of that, which also makes it a perfect swan song.

 

But, yeah, I remember saying not long after the album came out that it was the first album of theirs I didn't really connect to lyrically. But, I still related to it a ton at the time, as much as I have at any other point in their career, just in a more impressionistic kinda way or whatever. It came out in the midst of a season where I was in a crap ton of inner turmoil & uncertainty & deconstruction & heavy emotions & thoughts & blah blah blah, etc., etc. And, there was a certain mood & energy to the album that spoke to that.

 

i agree that it's an approach that wasn't new to untitled / that was coming down the pike for a while, but i think that culmination also marks a separation from the stuff prior, like it's more committed to that approach than it had been previously and breaks away with direct meaning completely. i feel like there was some degree of directness before, but im definitely open to the idea that using allegory like he did on TS is the opposite of directness for example. or that im mostly projecting greater understanding of pale horses vs untitled. I guess i should be more specific and say he's still focused on meaning but maybe more focused on conveying that meaning through ways he hadn't leaned on as heavily before.

btw is ur avi Death from Sandman? I love Sandman and it's great art regardless

 

I do agree that it was the tipping point (as my second post that you "liked" more or less said, lol). I just also remember a lot of seeds being planted that hinted at this, both in the prior albums & in some interviews here & there. So, when it happened, I was like, ok, here it is. Aaron going full Aaron. I mean, the way Aaron was in the it's all crazy! era & how that almost ended the band then is also probably related.

And, yeah, it's Death. I've never really fully gotten into Sandman, but I'm very into the character Death; if she counts, she's in my top 5 DC characters. I saw this Art Adams piece he auctioned off as a fundraiser for comic shops in lockdown, & loved it, as I do like 99% of Death drawings I see.

 

As someone who resonates with the more explicitly Christian side of mwY’s earlier stuff, [Untitled] strangely resonated with me more than anything they’ve put out in a while. I can’t say entirely why. I think the prior two albums felt abstract, and this one feels more abstract, but it also feels discontented with the abstract in a way that hits me. There’s a yearning for spiritual clarity here that feels really earnest while Pale Horses felt more cynical and Ten Stories felt removed due to the storytelling aspect. Even when I don’t understand the words themselves, I feel like I can understand and relate with the emotions behind the words more. “Michael” being the biggest example. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.

 

There’s something about “Rainbow Signs” that feels like a prelude to the ‘untitled’ era. Definitely lyrically but also musically. ‘Ten Stories’ and the rest of the ‘Pale Horses’ album definitely have moments that feel like a call-back to the bands’ roots, but knowing that Aaron has a complicated relationship with that style always made it really compelling to me that the first time they truly bring it back, he’s singing about the Book of Revelations. It’s obviously always a lyrical trick he pulls, to tie personal upheaval to bigger, darker themes. But then ‘untitled’ feels further from the personal (notable exceptions being “Michael” and the last track) and more obsessed with oblivion generally. Idk, ‘Rainbow Signs’ just marks the beginning of the most blackpilled mwY-era haha


You know what’s a weird song in all this? “Kristy” is a weird song in the middle of all this. I love it a lot, but it’s an outlier in their catalogue and especially an outlier in the final act of the band.

 

“Kristy” is for sure one of the oddest songs they’ve ever done. Musically, lyrically, and placement. Love it though.

 

I love that Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore feels like them just tearing the band to shreds and then Break On Through feels like the band being lowered down into the grave. The perfect ending to a perfect record from a perfect band.

 

I like the comparison I’ve seen multiple times of Pale Horses being the apocalypse and [Untitled] being the post-apocalypse. And I guess [untitled] EP is sort of like the slow motion fever dream in between.