mewithoutYou Catch For Us The Foxes (2004) Tooth & Nail

This CD was entirely more mediocre then I had been hoping it would be. This Philadelphia indie rock outfit was first introduced to me this summer when my friend was going ape shit about them. She kept telling me, “You have to listen to these guys! They are so awesome!” So eventually I caved and took a look at their website. This was when I first heard "January 1979," the only song on the album I really enjoyed. "January 1979" is an awesome rock song, the vocalist’s gruff voice lends well and the words he half sings/half shouts out really excited me the first time I heard them, and they still do now. Unfortunately, Catch for Us the Foxes is not just "January 1979."

Now don’t get me wrong, mewithYou is not a bad band. As instrumentalists they are very sound, and they’re very good at making the end of songs sound strangely eerie and cool. So why doesn’t this album sit well? Quite simply, it’s the vocals. I have trouble really comprehending what the hell vocalists is singing about, and not because he is over poetic or anything, it’s because it feels like he’s just shouting out random things at me… And now that I think about it this problem is present even in the tracks I like. And even at it’s best… Come on its random shouting. And when he actually kind of sings (and when I say sing I mean “talks rhythmically”) his voice is just sort of there…

mewithoutYou could be a great band for me to listen to, but they tricked me with their single (sort of like the Walkmen). Maybe it’s just unfair to mewithoutYou that I tried to review this album after listening to Say Anything, but they just fail to do anything stellar or that stands out in my mind. They end up only giving something I truly enjoy to me once, but all in all they are good at what they do. If you enjoyed mewithoutYou’s first CD then chances are you’ll like this, because I do like these songs more then I liked "Bullet to Binary." Unfortunately the band lost me when their opener "Torches Together" started with random off key singing that really didn’t make sense.

(Marlon)