Album: Catch for us the Foxes
Artist: Mewithoutyou
Label: Tooth and Nail
Sounds like: New Wave screamo

With a title taken from the Song of Songs, “Catch for us the foxes” contains uniquely beautiful and wordy lyrics that hold a kaleidoscope of images (impossible to summarise adequately) and veil serious subjects like suicide, delivered in Aaron Weiss’s part-spoken, part-sung, part-shouted vocals, like a more excitable Lou Reed. Formerly practitioners of that acquired taste “screamo” (or “screamcore” or whatever you want to call it), there is much less of that here. The heavy elements that saw them lumped with hardcore bands like Blindside make an appearance, but take a back seat to more intricate, shimmering and sparkling music. Only occasionally does it threaten to tear loose of its moorings. But the more focused musicality helps all the more to elevate the intriguing lyrics.

Nicks Rating: 4/5