mewithoutYou - [untitled] e.p. & [Untitled] LP (2018) Album • Page 106

Alright, about to do a full listen with undivided attention while reading the lyrics.

I think I'll make notes as I'm doing it just for fun!

 

Re: Diary of a Madman

'As his madness deepens, he begins to "understand" the conversations of two dogs and believes he has discovered letters sent between them.'

Swap dogs for...oh i dunno...two cats named Wendy & Betsy

 

lol the depth of his lyrics never cease to amaze

 

Not sure how to make this a short annotation, but here goes my feeble-minded attempt. Seeing the written (and unsung) lyrics in their intended format should make it somewhat clear where I'm getting my interpretation, but feel free to claim all of this as a crazy reach.

"BURNING BOOKS: To Gainesville
[one turning, looks in semicircles] Lies!"

Seems to me that the character BURNING BOOKS is Terry Jones, a pastor of a Gainesville church similar to Westboro Baptist. They got national attention for being extremely anti-Islamic and organizing a Koran burning on the anniversary of 9/11 a few years back. Someone hears him make a small comment about going to Gainesville and rolls their eyes (looks in semicircles) and calls him a liar, because you can't believe a word out of his mouth.

"LITTLE LAMB: Before the day is done
My prince is gonna come"

Young impressionable minds could be the little lamb, innocent and desperate to believe in a faith that will bring them their prince who will save them before they reach the end of their lives without a guarantee of what the day after death will bring them.

"LAMBS: [w/ best attempts to keep themselves warm]
A toast to all we’re meant for!"

Religion promises us meaning, and these lambs believe they're meant for greatness. Yet they have to keep themselves warm, because their prince hasn't arrived.

"[withhold details of West Virginia highwayside]"

I fucking love how he repeats the first stanza yet in the liner notes this is the lyric. Clearly referencing "Bethlehem, WV" from the EP which is all about doubting the faiths that are engrained into young minds that believe the streets of solid gold are on the other side, and who just did as their were told without questioning their beliefs.

"BURNING BOOKS: Fire and a flood
There’s power in the blood
Of every little lamb
Wonderworking power"

This one could be interpreted so many ways. BURNING BOOKS is the one leading this incantation (I think it's very purposeful how chant-like and hypnotic this song's vibe is) and clearly, he is not the type of person whose cult you should follow or words you should listen to.

If you want to take a much darker road, it could be a damnation of all these cult-like denominations of Christianity that take advantage of the little lambs in their flock. They use the wonderworking power of their flock to get their evil out to the world, and their flock of lambs is unaware their leader is just bloodletting them for his gain.

The fact he recites an old hymn could be a critique on religions across the world using outdated and unchanging worldviews that cannot be progressive or adaptable in any way, but because it's familiar and hypnotic they can lull many into their trance and ensnare them in that web.

Although I'm sure if you ask Aaron, any of this would be news to him and I'm reading into a microscope between these lines haha but there you go, my thoughts on this.

 

Reading along with the lyrics was a great time and I stopped trying to take notes a few songs in; it became too distracting.

There are a few things I noticed that I hadn't earlier throughout the day when I only had one earphone in, so that rules.

Flee, Thou Matadors! has to contain the weirdest lyrics he's ever done.

I like every song, but [dormouse sighs] is still my least favorite for some reason. I don't dislike it by any means, but nothing about it stands out so much.

 

This is the song I'm looking forward to seeing most at their show next month I just know that when "fire and the flood" kicks in live it's gonna melt my face and the crowd will lose their shit.

 

I definitely see what you’re saying now. Might be more of a comdemnation of the more cult like interpretations of faith, as you alluded, Westboro.

Thanks for this!

 

Where are you getting these lyrics from? I don't see them in my download for the LP, just in the folder for the EP.

 

Just finished first listen. Loved it a lot and Im sure it will reveal itself more and more as time goes on but I was kind of hoping for more screaming/ heaviness. It was definitely heavy but I just want more. Weird comparison but the album reminded me of Forever by Code Orange. Mostly in the way the last two songs are on both records but also in its chaotic nature.

Really excited to go through a read along listen this weekend.

 

Dropbox - [Untitled] Album Lyrics.txt

 

They are on bandcamp

 

mewithoutyou. bandcamp. com/album/untitled

They're here (sorry had to put spaces in because it just links to the media player of the album otherwise)

 

Thank you all!

 

Apologies if this has already been covered: is that Hayley Williams on [dormouse sighs]?

 

I believe it is Michael Weiss' wife

 

It’s Brandon Beaver, their guitarist.

 

dear my newlywed wife,

you’re not the love of my life,

it had already passed me by---

finally grasping the line

casting pearls before swine?


So, these lines are being interpreted as incredibly sad, and I agree, but I think the sadness being perceived might be misplaced toward him already having loved another woman as the love of his life.

I’m leading a group of teenagers through a study on the book of Revelation, and just got through chapter 2, where Christ addresses the 7 churches.

In His address to the church of Ephesus, He hones in on their weakness as a church being that they had forgotten their first love or “the love they had at the beginning” in the joy of new faith, new love.

When I heard this line, I immediately thought of Aaron realizing that the love he had in his faith has passed him by.

Maybe I’m far off, maybe I’m close, maybe I’m associating it with my recency bias. Still parsing through the rest of that final verse, but this is how it’s punching me in my freaking face right now.

 

Not sure if I agree on that exact interpretation but I do agree that’s it’s not about a different woman. I had that thought earlier but didn’t know how to put it.

Good catch and comment!

 

pretty great first listen - gets really heavy at some points and I love that

so far I prefer the ep (doesn’t mean anything on first listen lol) but this is awesome too

 

Yeah, definitely not about another woman.

Again, that’s just where my mind jumped becuase I’ve just recently been in that frame of mind.

The “casting pearls before swine” part is referencing something Jesus said from the Sermon on the Mount, which is basically saying to be wary of when you share your faith, cautious to know the social situation where it is appropriate to bring “mysteries of the faith” (pulling from Charles Spurgeon here) into a conversation.

Aaron is a freaking wordsmith, y’all.

 

man, about to zip through a 3rd listen and upon 7:29, 7/29 ending I can't help but think Aaron's voice and his energy/delivery in this song sounds so much younger than a man pushing 40

 

Aaron’s mentioned not believing in a so called love of his life, so him saying that in a song does lead me to believe he isn’t talking about another person.

 

Holding off until Friday but just wanted to pop in to say that Cities of the Plain is officially my favorite song of theirs.

 

"You can leave me anytime"