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mewithoutYou is an Alternative Rock Band signed to Tooth and Nail Records, known for their spoken word Vocals, introspective lyrics and almost hookless instrumentation.
Tropes:
- Animal Motifs: Put in increasing use with each successive album. Notable examples are, of course, "The Fox, The Crow, And The Cookie," the Spider trilogy of songs on Brother, Sister.
- Reaches its logical conclusion in Ten Stories, whose protagonists of the entire album are made up of at least three different animals.
- Concept Album: Ten Stories, in a loose sense.
- Dead Little Sister: Bear was unfortunate enough to watch his brother die and be thrown aside onto rocks in front of him. Fox may or may not have a dead fiance, but given the amount of symbolism in the lyrics it's still up in the air.
- Despair Event Horizon: Another running theme reaching its absolute peak with "January 1979." Mostly averted with It's All Crazy! It's All False!
- Epic Riff: On "Silencer."
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: Played with in "We Know Who Our Enemies Are". The song ends with a riff that slowly fades out, only to fade back in, before abruptly ending.
- Genre Busting: Is it post-rock? Is it folk pop? Is it indie rock? Is it hard rock? All these things and more, with a dressing of spoken-word lyrics.
- Adding to the stew of genres, their earlier work is in the post-hardcore genre.
- Grey and Gray Morality: The animals in Ten Stories may have wrecked the circus train, but the humans only show themselves to be less and less sympathetic as the album goes on.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ten Stories begins with Elephant performing one. It didn't end well.
- Kangaroo Court: One is set up for Elephant during "Elephant in the Dock."
- Mythology Gag: "January 1979" begins with a crash. Three albums later, "February, 1878" opens with a circus train crashing.
- New Sound Album: Its All Crazy! Its All False! Its All a Dream! Its Alright! is mostly acoustic with singing vocals and much more upbeat lyrical content.
- Also Creates a Broken Base of the They Changed It, Now It Sucks variety.
- Subverted with Ten Stories, which seems to marry the two styles to general fandom acclaim.
- Not Christian Rock: Sorta. In interviews Aaron Weiss comments that his lyrics are almost entirely personal in nature, and not targeted toward any particular audience (religious or otherwise), though his status as a Buddhist and Sufi inspired Christian is evident in almost everything he sings.
- In a sense, the songs detail more the struggles and triumphs of a Christian man rather than being straightforward worship songs.
- Tragic Hero: Elephant, in a sense.