Okay, deep breath. We’ve posted some pretty high scoring albums so far this year. For just a few examples, the new records from Straight Lines, The Tower And The Fool, Blacklisters, Hot Water Music and Now, Now have all recently impressed, and across the sub-genres of rock, 2012 has been a very exciting and rewarding year to have your ears open to new music.
Despite that, talk about industry decline rumbles like a bass drone or irritates like a tinnitus whistle, but whoever you blame or whatever you think happens next, there’s no doubt that great music is always in demand. And where there’s demand, there’s usually supply. The suppliers of great music in this instance are a certain Pennsylvanian alt rock band that go by the name of ‘mewithoutYou’.
‘Ten Stories’ is eleven tracks in length (obviously), and arrives three years after the band’s last full length, ‘It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright’. Here, the arrangements are impeccably formed and the production backing those arrangements up is gorgeous. Though the band’s experimental brand of alt/acoustic rock has always been a joy for those with an ear for the off-kilter, ‘Ten Stories’ is an especially wonderful adventure with a band on magnificent form.
It feels a little redundant to pick a favourite of the tracks, as they’re all robust in their own way, but the cantering build up of ‘Cardiff Giant’, the tasteful Hayley Williams featuring ‘Fox’s Dream Of The Log Flume’, the haunting latter parts of ‘Nine Stories’ and closer ‘All Circles’ all display the precision of the band’s craft particularly well.
There’s so much to enjoy about the execution of the band’s ideas that it’s really hard not to love ‘Ten Stories’ – the instrumental layering and arrangement really is something else, and it just begs for multiple repeat listens. If you’re a fan of the band to this point, it’s very likely that it will will have you wrapped up in its clutches from the first note, and though it’s going to go over a few heads, ‘Ten Stories’ is a wonderful and gripping album that is full of striking instrumentation, dark melody and well executed ideas.
This is a band that has been a little too absent from UK shores throughout their existence, but on the strength of the new record and the love it’ll receive here with any justice, we can only hope they plan to come here soon. ‘Ten Stories’ is an absolute must have for those who are searching for something set aside from the norm and crafted rather than “bashed out”, and it’s going to take some quite incredible scenes to take this out of our top 10 albums list this year.
TOM AYLOTT