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Music / mewithoutYou

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mewithoutyoucurrentlineup_9.jpeg
Their lineup from 2012 to 2022. Clockwise from the left: Greg Jehanian, Brandon Beaver, Rickie Mazzota, Aaron Weiss, and Mike Weiss.

"We'll be like torches!
We'll be like torches,
With whatever respect,
Our tattered dignity demands,
Torches together, hand in hand"
—"Torches Together"

mewithoutYou (capitalization just-so) is an Alternative Rock Band from Philadelphia formed in 2001. Their lineup has shifted around many times◊ throughout their tenure, but from 2012 to their ultimate disbandment they had five principle members: Aaron Weiss (vocals), Michael Weiss and Brandon Beaver (guitars), Greg Jehanian (bass guitar), and Rickie Mazzotta (drums).

They're best known for their spoken word vocals, introspective lyrics, and almost hookless instrumentation. Their songs often explore philosophical and spiritual themes, or view personal circumstances through a spiritual lens; Shout-Outs to literature and scripture as well as quotes from spiritual teachers are ubiquitous throughout their body of work. Animal Motifs are also very common.

Describing their genre is a difficult task, even during their first few albums. They started out as Post-Hardcore with [A→B] Life, with uniquely spoken vocals, and gradually shifted into more experimental territory with Catch for Us the Foxes and Brother, Sister, the latter of which featured some Folk influences as well. Their fouth album, ''It's All Crazy!", was almost entirely Folk, while their next three worked to marry the two styles together. Although the band initially came to prominence within evangelical Christian circles, they do not consider themselves to be Christian Rock.

Their last concert was performed on August 20, 2022, back in Philadelphia.

Discography

Long Plays

  • [A→B] Life (2002)
  • Catch for Us the Foxes (2004)
  • Brother, Sister (2006)
  • It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright (2009)
  • Ten Stories (2012)
  • Pale Horses (2015)
  • [A→B] Live* (2018)
  • [Untitled] (2018)

Extended Plays

  • I Never Said That I Was Brave (2001)
  • Other Stories* (2013)
  • East Enders Wives*(2014)
  • Pale Horse': Appendix* (2016)
  • untitled EP (2018)

mewithoutYou provides examples of the following tropes:

    open/close all folders 

    A-I 
  • Adaptation Expansion: "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie" adds narrative and thematic embellishment to the original fable.
  • An Aesop: "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie", as a retelling of an actual fable from the man himself, fittingly relays the same message, while also stressing the importance of letting go of one's pride and ego.
    • It's All Crazy! as a whole stresses the importance of forgiveness, self-control, spiritual tranquility, and the omnipresence and love of God.
  • Album Closure:
    • From Brother, Sister, "In a Sweater Poorly Knit" is a gentle, lullaby-like tune with peaceful, epiphanic lyrics contrasting with the musical intensity and harsher, self-deprecatory words that comprise most of the previous tracks.
      • This was also the track that they ended all of the shows on their "Farewell Tour" with.
    • From It's All Crazy!, "Allah, Allah, Allah" reemphasizes and concludes the album's themes of the omnipresence of God and the necessity of forgiveness.
    • From Ten Stories, "All Circles" is a Single Stanza Song whose one lyric more or less summarizes the previously explored philosophical concepts.
    • From Pale Horses, "Rainbow Signs" is a thundering finale that narrates the Biblical apocalypse the rest of the album has been leading to. Its conclusion also contains something of a Surprisingly Happy Ending that provides a measure of closure to the emotional turmoil resulting from the album's heavy subject matter.
    • "Break on Through (to the Other Side) [pt. Two]" acts as this not just to [Untitled], but to the band's entire discography, emphasizing the singer's journey and desire for spiritual enlightenment, but also their peace with not having all the answers.
  • Album Intro Track: "Pale Horse" is a brief, quiet track that details the emotional and spiritual questions which permeate the rest of Pale Horses.
  • Album Title Drop:
    • In "Seven Sisters": "Please catch for us the foxes, in the vineyard, the little foxes".
    • Done obliquely in "O Porcupine":
      You say Judas is a brother of mine?
      Oh, but sister in our darkness a light shines
    • In "Allah, Allah, Allah": "Everywhere we look, it's all crazy, it's all false, it's all a dream, it's alright, everywhere we look".
    • The exact phrase "pale horses" doesn't show up in the titular album, but "pale horse" does appear in the titular Album Intro Track, "Red Cow", and "Rainbow Signs".
  • All Men Are Perverts: Discussed in "Fig with a Bellyache", where the singer admits that from his perspective, men only pretend to listen to women while actually being concerned with "sailing their birth canal".
  • All There in the Manual: Physical copies of their music usually come with lyric booklets, though they don't always match what's actually sung. The booklet for Pale Horses in particular also contains what seem to be the lyricist's annotations, embellishments, and explanations that couldn't fit into the original songs.
  • Animal Motifs:
  • Arc Symbol: Circles tend to be referenced throughout their discography as symbols of both relationships and spiritual journeys.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: One is posed to the listener in "New Wine, New Skins".
    "God's will" or "come what fortune gives"
    Or is this truly how you'd choose to live?
  • Artistic License – Geography: The bridge in "Grist for the Malady Mill" seems to raise more questions than it answers with the locations it lists. It's likely referencing the journey of Fox and Bear, but if they're just leaving Badger Pass in Montana, they should be nowhere within "three miles [of] Flagstaff".
  • Artistic License – Religion: "The Angel of Death Came to David's Room" gets a few details wrong with the Biblical narrative it seems to be relaying.
    • In the Book of Chronicles, David did not seem at all reluctant to die, with his last recorded words being a humble prayer that praised God and requested that his subjects remain forever loyal to Him.
    • Additionally, David did in fact live long enough to tell Solomon "the things [he] learned", as he had already been chosen as the future king when he died.
    • Lastly, Bathsheba outlived David, not the other way around.
  • As the Good Book Says...: Tons. See their Shout-Out page for all the instances.
  • Beast Fable:
    • "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie", "Goodbye, I" (specifically the second verse), and "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" from It's All Crazy! are this.
    • Ten Stories is one for the most part, although some characters are human and it's altogether darker than your typical Aesop.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: In "August 6th" the singer relays facing down a robotic mantis large enough to have "legs on both highway sides".
  • Big "OMG!": One is sang in "Messes of Men"; not as an expletive, but as an expression of reverence.
  • Big "NO!": Shouted in "Gentlemen" at the end of the song.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The singer in the appropriately named "Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)" sees himself as a literal example of this trope.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: "Another Head for Hydra" references their at-the-time recorod producer Will Yip, more or less describing his accomplishments and awards as ultimately meaningless.
  • Bittersweet Ending: "Four Fires" acts as this to Rabbit's story. Rabbit finally returns home only to find that his father has died while he was gone. Nonetheless, his mother is still there for him, and the song's final verse implies that there is no enmity between the two, and that Rabbit has come to terms with his loss.
    • Ten Stories as a whole ends like this. Elephant is executed by a mob, but dies completely at peace. Rabbit is happy to be back home in spite of his father's death. Bear ends up sacrificing himself for Fox. Tiger and Peacock are recaptured by the circus, but even confined, they're able to bond with one another and recognize their own innate value. Walrus, meanwhile, successfully escapes and seems to have no difficulty in braving the wilderness. While the circus is still around, it's on its last legs as a result of the animals' desertion.
  • Black Comedy: Bear's relaying of an attempt to make conversation with his then-girlfriend is both disturbing and hilariously awkward.
  • Bookends:
    • In Brother, Sister, "Messes of Men" begins with the phrase "I do not exist" and "In a Sweater Poorly Knit" ends with it.
    • In It's All Crazy!, "Every Thought a Thought Of You" and "Allah, Allah, Allah" are the only songs to lack nonhuman characters.
    • In Pale Horses, "Rainbow Signs" incorporates the tune of "Pale Horse" in its first and final verses.
  • Bowdlerization: "I Never Said That I Was Brave" from [A→B] Life changes the lyric "Come over and part your soft pink curtains" from the previous version of the song (on the titular EP) to "Come over and part your soft white curtains", presumably to avoid the sexual overtones the original line had.
  • Break-Up Song: [A→B] Life is almost entirely composed of these.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
    • From "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie":
    I've got a walnut brownie brain
    And molasses in my veins
    Crushed graham cracker crust
    My powdered sugar funnel cake cocaine!
    • From "East Enders Wives":
    Choir sang as the black birch fell
    Sorrow rang like a churchyard bell
    An axe to the trees, smoke for the bees
    And all our dads die
  • Breather Episode: "Yellow Spider", "Orange Spider", and "Brownish Spider" are soft, simple tunes with whimsical lyrics, each placed at regular intervals in Brother, Sister to space out the more intense tracks.
  • Call-Back:
    • This lyric in "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt" is rephrased in "In a Sweater Poorly Knit" ("And if she comes circling back, we'll end where we'd begun") and "Bear's Vision of St. Agnes" ("As our hollowed lumber falls like water, ends where I start").
      "Thy firmness makes my circle just
      And makes me end where I begun"
    • "Four Fires" opens with the line "Dear seven sisters" and contains the phrase "bare, wandering feet", both of which reference "Seven Sisters" from Catch for Us the Foxes.
    • "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" reincorporates the lyric "Why not be utterly changed into fire?" originally used in "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)".
    • "Aubergine" is probably a story about a fish learning that their romantic obsession with an eggplant is ultimately unjustified, calling back to "Bullet to Binary (Pt. Two)", in which the same lesson is learned by a bed of lettuce.
    • The final line of "Four Fires" ("Mama sing my favorite hymn, and remind me everyone is him") and by extension Ten Stories as a whole, calls back to the second verse of "Allah, Allah, Allah", the last song of It's All Crazy!
      In everyone we meet (x6)
      Allah, Allah, Allah
      In everyone we meet
  • Central Theme:
    • [A→B] Life: Being in despair as a result of a failed relationship and searching for God as a result.
    • Catch for Us the Foxes: Depression, disillusionment, and despair with how meaningless everything feels, and with one's current direction in life, even to the point of contemplating suicide. But even in the darkest times, keeping one's focus on God can keep you afloat.
    • Brother, Sister: An earnest, passionate search for spiritual truth often requires understanding and harmonizing opposite concepts. And hey, maybe you're finally able to move on from that disastrous relationship all those years ago?
    • It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright:
      • Letting go of your pride and ego. Fully surrendering to the will of God rather than trying to control what you can't.
      • God is everywhere and in everyone. As such, try to show kindness to everyone.
      • Forgiveness is a necessity to living a spiritual life, as is self-control.
      • Many of our relationships our built on some measure of deceit, even those we have to God. All the same, we must love one another unconditionally.
    • Ten Stories:
      • The conflict between institutionalized life and true spiritual freedom, explored from the point of view of animals choosing between a safe captivity and a perilous liberty.
      • Undergoing hardship and even death in a pursuit for spiritual truth is preferable to a comfortable but ultimately performative life dictated solely by authorities.
      • The power of self-sacrifice, both in its basic and ultimate forms.
    • Pale Horses:
    • [Untitled]: Meaning and self-discovery.
  • Concept Album: Brother, Sister, It's All Crazy!, and Pale Horses each have strong thematic underpinnings and album-spanning motifs.
  • Cover Drop: "O, Porcupine" references the cover art◊ of Brother, Sister.
    Without a queen the locust swarm turned the ground to black
    Descending like a shadowy tower on a fish's back
  • Cross-Referenced Titles: From Brother, Sister, the song titles "In a Market Dimly Lit" and "In a Sweater Poorly Knit" are similarly phrased.
  • Crisis of Faith:
    • "Fox's Dream of the Log Flume" involves Bear facing one.
    • The crisis in "Birnam Wood" is less of "Is there a God?" and more "Is God good?"
  • Dare to Be Badass:
    • "Torches Together" is a rousing call for spiritual unity and transformation, which makes the rest of the album somewhat ironic given how hopeless it feels at certain points.
    • The lyrics "Why not be utterly changed into fire?" in "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)" and "Why not be crushed to make wine?" in "Son of a Widow" also emphasize this to a smaller extent.
    • "Why not be utterly changed into fire?" is repeated in the final refrain of "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate".
  • Darker and Edgier: Pale Horses is this to Ten Stories, and to their entire discography as a whole. Not only is the tone significantly grimmer due to its apocalyptic motif and a healthy dose of Reality Subtext, it pushes the envelope in terms of content with some tracks. Fittingly, the album cover is colorless and the instrumentation for the tracks is composed purely of guitar, bass, and drums when every album post-Foxes had included nonstandard instruments.
  • Death Song:
    • "The Angel of Death Came to David's Room" has King David singing one of these.
    • "Elephant in the Dock" is one for Elephant.
    • "Bear's Vision of St. Agnes" ends up becoming one for Bear.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: Using animals, especially exotic animals, as part of a circus performance is seen far more negatively today than it would've been in 1878, emphasizing the general depravity of the Circus in Ten Stories.
  • Despair Event Horizon: A common theme throughout much of their discography, but especially in Catch for Us the Foxes and Pale Horses.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: The titular angel in "The Angel of Death Came to David's Room" seems like a pretty chill guy.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: The singer in "The Soviet" admits to being this.
  • Double Entendre: The lyric "From the frying pan of the celibate man to the fires of the premature" in D-Minor either means Aaron wasn't emotionally ready for intimacy, or that he wasn't ''physically'' ready.
  • Double-Meaning Title: The name of the band itself. Depending on whether or not the "you" is capitalized, it could refer to feeling abandoned by a friend or lover, or to feeling abandoned by God.
    • "Carousels" could refer to a common ride in fairs like the one the singer wistfully wishes was in-town, or to a cyclical journey that he admits he'd be on without having God as his guide.
    • "Nine Stories" refers to the number of recollections Owl and Walrus swap as well as an acrobatic tower seen by the latter in Tangier.
  • Dream Sequence:
    • "Fox's Dream of the Log Flume" involves one, as the title suggests.
    • "Dorothy" is mostly about a dream Aaron ostensibly had, while a similar dream is also relayed in the final verse of "Rainbow Signs"; both involve a flashback to Aaron's past.
  • Driven to Suicide: Explored in "Tie Me Up! Untie Me!", "Seven Sisters", and Carousels in Catch for Us the Foxes and "Mexican War Streets" in Pale Horses.
  • Droste Image: Referenced in "Tortoises All the Way Down".
    While all hiding inside our painting-of-a-house-hung-up-inside- that same-painted-house-which-ever-implies-another-painted-house-inside lives
  • Duality Motif: Brother, Sister has this in its title, cover art, and in the lyrical references in many of its tracks, e.g. the sea and land, water and dryness/fire, darkness and light, and the moon and sun.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: I Never Said That I Was Brave and [A→B] Life are far louder, angstier, and rawer than the more melodic and introspective tracks the band is generally well known for, both in terms of lyrics and instrumentation.
  • Either/Or Title: "Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)"
  • Egocentrically Religious: Discussed in "Every Thought a Thought Of You"; it's easily missed given the song's otherwise upbeat lyrics.
    When they swear their love is real
    They mean I like the way you make me feel
    (No one here to believe but You)
    There's no one here to believe but You
  • Elemental Motifs:
    • Brother, Sister is strongly associated with water. Most of its songs mention water in some form or another, with the only songs that don't being the trilogy of spider-themed songs, "Nice and Blue, (Pt. Two)", and "In a Market Dimly Lit". Narratively, the songs frequently reference spiritual recovery and healing, while also expressing the unstable and tumultuous position the singer finds himself in (e.g. "Messes of Men" draws parallels to sailing on a stormy sea). Appropriately, the tracks run the gamut from quiet calmness to tempestuous anger and frustation. And lastly, the album cover depicts a tower on a fish's back, which combined give the image of a sailboat.
    • Most of the songs in It's All Crazy! mention and/or are named after plants of some kind, especially in the context of agriculture. Appropriately, they frequently encourage universal kindness and living a carefree life. The album cover is fittingly verdant, standing as a rather stark contrast to those that came before it.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "The Angel of Death Came to David's Room".
  • Excited Episode Title!: It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright
  • Fading into the Next Song: Nearly every track on Ten Stories, to the point where it can be jarring when an individual track from the album comes up on shuffle.
  • 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.
  • The Final Temptation: The last verse of "A Stick, a Carrot, & String" presents Jesus with one, in the same vein as The Last Temptation of Christ: to escape the crucifixion and to start a personal family of His own. Naturally, He refuses.
  • Food Porn: The descriptions of sweets and baked goods at the beginning and ending of "The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie" fall into this.
  • Food Songs Are Funny: Both "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie" (whose plot involves stolen confections) and "Bullet to Binary, (Pt. Two)" (which mostly involves a conversation between vegetables) are pretty humorous.
  • Foreshadowing: In Ten Stories, both the Fortune Teller's prediction and Fox's dream come to pass.
  • Freak Show: The Circus in Ten Stories ends up resorting to one as a result of losing half of their animals in a train crash.
  • Freudian Excuse: Mentioned in "Allah, Allah, Allah"
    If your old man did you wrong
    If you old man did you wrong
    If your old man did you wrong
    Well maybe his old man did him wrong
  • 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.
  • Genre Shift: Catch for Us the Foxes moved away from their Post-Hardcore origins, Brother, Sister did the same while introducing some Folk influences, and It's All Crazy! is almost entirely composed of Folk. The rest of their discography starting with Ten Stories more or less merges Folk with the Indie Rock sound they were originally known for, with Pale Horses in particular calling back to their hard-rock roots.
  • God Is Dead: The idea is referenced in D-Minor, with Aaron musing that "This is not the first time God has died"
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Implied in "Bethlehem, WV".
  • Gosh Darn It to Heck!: In "Mexican War Streets", Aaron sings "To heck with all the drugs my parents did!", making it somewhat jarring when "Rainbow Signs" includes an actual Precision F-Strike.
  • Gratuitous French: Used in both "Bullet to Binary" and "Dirty Air".
  • Grief Song: "Dorothy". Pale Horses in general has an overtone of grief and sorrow throughout.
  • Grim Reaper: Present in "The Angel of Death Came to David's Room" and "Blue Hen", although they seem to have differing attitudes towards their line of work.
  • Grim Up North: The main setting of Ten Stories is in the mountains of Montana in the middle of winter. Walrus goes further north to the Canadian border, but doesn't seem to have any problems acclimating to his new environment.
  • Gruesome Goat: The goat present in "A Stick, a Carrot, and a String" possibly represents Satan, given its unwillingness to celebrate the birth of Christ with the other animals.
  • Harassing Phone Call: The singer mentions doing this in "Gentlemen", presumably to an ex-lover.
  • Hidden Track:
    • On the final track of [A→B] Life, an acoustic rendition of "I Never Said That I Was Brave" plays following a long period of silence.
    • On the final track of ''Pale Horses: Appendix", an instrumental begins following a long period of silence as well.
  • Homesickness Hymn: Parts of "D-Minor" emphasize Aaron's willingness to return to Idaho to be with his wife, presumably while out on tours.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Referenced in "In a Sweater Poorly Knit", presumably within the contexts of breaking off a relationship: "The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead".
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Pale Horse (Death) and Black Horse (Famine) are referenced in "Pale Horse". In "Rainbow Signs", all four are indirectly referenced in the order that they appear in the Book of Revelation.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Almost very human character in Ten Stories is shown to be incredibly spiteful and unsympathetic, even those that aren't part of the Circus, like the Fortune Teller and the Mob that murders Elephant. The only exceptions are Bear's ex-lover and poor, poor Julian.
  • Hurricane of Puns: The onion-related puns in "Julian the Onion".
  • Insecure Love Interest:

    L-Z 
  • Lame Pun Reaction: In "Fiji Mermaid," the singer quips, "Maybe there'll be a bakery hiring, we'll need a little dough to get by!" to which an audible groan is heard in the background (it's even printed in the lyric booklet).
  • Last Note Nightmare: "Tortoises All the Way Down" suddenly transitions into frenzied, chaotic chanting backed by a booming guitar in the last forty seconds.
  • Liberty Over Prosperity:
  • Lighter and Softer: It's All Crazy! is on-the-whole significantly less intense than the previous three albums, both in terms of lyrical content and instrumentation. Many of the songs are outright joyful and enthusiastic, often imparting some form of moral wisdom to the listener. The band's experimentation with nonstandard rock instruments also lend the album a more childlike, carefree sound.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Zigzagged in Ten Stories. The animals are clearly capable of talking to and forming normal relationships with humans, even living in human society and holding jobs (as shown by Bear and Rabbit), but at the same time, many of them (such as Walrus and Owl) seem to have no problem with living in the wild, and their being in human captivity isn't seen as unusual by anyone.
  • Literary Allusion Title:
  • Live Album: [A→B] Live
  • Longest Song Goes Last: "Rainbow Signs" is the longest track of Pale Horses at six minutes.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: "Bethlehem, WV" is a bright, airy-sounding track, but many of its lyrics are disturbing enough to border on Word-Salad Horror.
  • Lyric Swap:
    • The version of "We Know Who Our Enemies Are" sung in [A→B] Life changes a line from the version sung in I Never Said That I Was Brave:
      • I Never Said That I Was Brave: "All fevered and blistered, the whole world at stake"
      • [A→B] Life: "All fevered and blistered, with nothing at stake"
    • During live shows, Aaron would appropriately update the line "And I haven't even thought about killing myself in over five months" from "Tie Me Up! Untie Me!", making it either extremely concerning or a massive relief.
    • Other lyrics have also been updated during shows, sometimes in response to current events, sometimes for humor, and often to reflect his shifting life circumstances or a new perspective on his own words.
  • Madness Mantra:
    • "It'll be alright" from "Gentlemen"
    • "It never ends" from "C-Minor"
    • The opening line to the final verse in "Tortoises All the Way Down" is essentially a sung description of a Droste Image.
  • Making Love in All the Wrong Places: "D-Minor" tastefully implies Aaron and his wife made love in a forest.
  • Mature Animal Story: Ten Stories is this, given both the overall bleakness of the narrative and the intellectual nature of its lyrics, which often involve esoteric philosophical and spiritual concepts.
  • Mechanical Animals/Insects
    • In the Dystopia depicted in "Magic Lantern Days", android whales are mentioned; apparently Aaron got the idea from his newphew, Harvey.
    • August 6th builds to the description of a gigantic mechanized mantis with red glowing eyes.
  • Metal Scream: Used to great effect in "Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)".
  • Miniscule Rocking: "[A]" and "[B]" from [A→B] Life, "Yellow Spider", "Orange Spider," and "Brownish Spider" from Brother, Sister, and "Dorothy" from Pale Horses are all under 2 minutes.
  • Mood Whiplash: The final line in "Tie Me Up! Untie Me!" could become this during live performances as Aaron would change it according to how he was really feeling.
  • Multilingual Song:
    • "My Exit, Unfair", "The Dryness and the Rain", "Every Thought a Thought Of You", and "Bullet to Binary, (Pt. Two)" have sections sung in Arabic.
    • The final verse of "Dorothy" is in Hebrew.
  • Mythology Gag: "January 1979" begins with the singer describing a (presumable) car crash they saw. 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 largely composed of Folk Music; the guitar is mostly acoustic, the vocals sung rather than spoken our shouted, and the lyrics are much more upbeat.
  • No Ending: Unfortunately, Ten Stories doesn't have any kind of concluding song that explains what became of all the animals.
  • Non-Appearing Title:
    • I Never Said That I Was Brave: "I Never Said That I Was Brave", "Flamethrower", "Dying is Strange and Hard", "We Know Who Our Enemies Are"
    • [A→B] Life: "Bullet to Binary", "The Ghost", "Gentlemen", "We Know Who Our Enemies Are", "I Never Said That I Was Brave", "Silencer"
    • Catch for Us the Foxes: "Disaster Tourism", "Seven Sisters", "The Soviet", "Carousels"
    • Brother, Sister: "Messes of Men",note "Nice and Blue, (Pt. Two)"
    • It's All Crazy!: "Bullet to Binary, (Pt. Two)"
    • Pale Horses: "D-Minor", "Dorothy"
    • untitled EP: "Dirty Air"
  • Non-Indicative Name: "Break on Through (to the Other Side) [pt. Two]" isn't a sequel to any song that the band themselves had written, but to a song by The Doors.
  • Obfuscating Disability: The tortoise in "Goodbye, I" feigns a broken leg.
  • Obsession Song: The songs in [A→B] Life are this combined with Breakup Songs
  • Ominous Arabic Chanting: "The Dryness and the Rain" makes use of this.
  • The One That Got Away: Aaron's ex-lover in [A→B] Life, who also plays a smaller role in Catch for Us the Foxes.
    • Bear's former girlfriend in Ten Stories also qualifies.
  • One-Word Title: "Flamethrower", "Gentlemen", "Silencer", "Leaf", "Carousels", "C-Minor", "D-Minor", "Dorothy", "Fairfield"
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • "Mexican War Streets" has Aaron expressing Tranquil Fury and bitterness rather than simple anger, both at the world and his own circumstances. One line in particular, presumably directed to either a past lover or the previously-mentioned "upscale" comes across as downright venomous.
      The sugar and the candles are gone
      You panic like a mouse when the lights go on
      I ADMIT IT WARMS MY HEART
      TO WATCH YOUR WORLD FALL APART!      note
    • "Birnam Wood" involves a genuine Crisis of Faith from Aaron's point of view, a struggle that had up to that point not been personally explored (with the possible exception of Fox and Bear's trials in ''Ten Stories). The contrast between its chorus and, say, "O, Porcupine" is like night and day.
  • Out-of-Genre Experience: "Hebrew Children" from Pale Horses: Appendix is a hymn with minimal instrumentation, specifically Sacred Harp 133.
  • Phrase Salad Lyrics: Much of the untitled EP and [Untitled] sound like this. There's usually some meaning to be gleaned, but it's difficult to know what's intentional and what's interpolated.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • According to this article, Aaron has sometimes altered the line "You'd be well inclined not to mess with me!" in "O, Porcupine" to "You'd be well inclined not to fuck with me!" during live shows.
    • Pale Horses has two examples, both of which were the first and last time their music had any kind of profanity.
      • "D-Minor": "They repaired my fence those bastards, I can't go back home no more".
      • "Rainbow Signs": "Threw a mute curse at the Boise sky, for my fucked-up Napoleon St. Helena hairline".
  • Proud Peacock: The peacocks referenced in "A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains", who believe themselves to be totally free as a result of having the autonomy to wander the zoo they are nonetheless kept captive in.
    • Peacock from Ten Stories is implied to be quite self-absorbed.
  • "Ray of Hope" Ending: The final verse of "Rainbow Signs" acts as this, coming off the heels of a tumultuous and frightening description of the Biblical apocalypse while also capping off an album that is altogether quite grim. It relays a dream that Aaron had of his father, similar to the narrative presented in "Dorothy", only this one is a quiet, happy moment between the two that has a sense of peace and childhood innocence to it, implying that there is indeed hope for his future after all.
  • Rock Opera: Ten Stories, which, as the title suggests, presents ten interconnected stories.
  • Rousing Speech: "Torches Together", although it ends on a somewhat dour note.
  • Sarcastic Title: "Gentlemen" features the singer acting like anything but.
  • Satan:
  • Scatting: Used in "Fig With a Bellyache".
  • Secret Police: Featured in the music video for "Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)"; fitting given all of the Nineteen Eighty-Four references in the song itself.
  • Self-Deprecation:
  • Sequel Song: Ordered by the release of the first song.
    • "Four Word Letter" in I Never Said That I Was Brave and "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)" in Catch for Us the Foxes.
    • "Bullet to Binary" in [A→B] Life and "Bullet to Binary (Pt. Two)" in It's All Crazy!
    • "Nice and Blue" in [A→B] Life and "Nice and Blue (Pt. Two)" in Brother, Sister.
    • "January 1979" in Catch for Us the Foxes, "February 1878" in Ten Stories, and "9:27 a.m., 7/29" from [Untitled].
    • "C-Minor" in Brother, Sister and "D-Minor" in Pale Horses.
  • Shoulder Devil: The concept is referenced in C-Minor, although given the spiritual nature of the band's lyrics, it's highly likely that the singer sees it as the actual Devil.
    Still there's a whisper in my ear
    The voice of loneliness and fear, and I say:
    "Devil, disappear!"
  • Sibling Team: Aaron Weiss and Mike Weiss are brothers.
  • Single Stanza Song: "All Circles", the closing track from Ten Stories, only contains the lyric "All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin, but only in their leaving can they ever come back 'round", with Hayley Williams' bridge paraphrasing it only slightly. Interestingly, the lyrics to this song are printed around the edge of the CD instead of in the lyric booklet.
  • Slaying Mantis: A massive, mechanized mantis is described as flipping cars in "August 6th".
  • Solar and Lunar: Brother, Sister has this motif on its album cover. Additionally, the seventh track is called "The Sun and the Moon", and it isn't a Non-Appearing Title.
  • Song of Prayer:
    • "Silencer", "Four Word Letter (Pt. Two)", and "In a Market Dimly Lit" all include sections where the singer speaks to God directly.
    • The chorus of "Carousels" involves the singer directly crying to God and explaining that "If I didn't have [Him] as my guide, I'd still wander, lost in Sinai".
    • "Every Thought a Thought Of You" is one entirely.
    • "Birnam Wood" combines this with a Crisis of Faith, with Aaron expressing his doubts, concerns, and questions to God in the chorus.
  • Song Style Shift:
    • "Bullet to Binary (Pt. Two)" starts as a fast-paced Folk Rock song but then transitions into a slower, repetitive worship song with significantly softer instrumentation.
    • "Lilac Queen" begins soft with little instrumentation with almost whispered vocals before transitioning midway into a heavy, dramatic rock piece with louder vocals, harder guitar, and a fast-paced drumbeat.
    • "Rainbow Signs" begins as a quiet, simple tune, suddenly ramps up to a thundering, explosive shouted chorus, and then dies back down to its original musical position just as quickly as it started.
    • "New Wine, New Skins" also begins as a quite melody with minimalist instrumentation before transitioning halfway into a much harder, more energetic rock song.
  • Spoken Word in Music: Aaron Weiss's general style (there were always exceptions where he would sing normally, however) for the first three albums. It's All Crazy! changed this by having him sing for the most part, while Ten Stories and successive albums featured a blend of the two.
  • Stealth Insult: More specifically a Stealth Comeback in "O, Porcupine".
    You say Judas is a brother of mine?
    Oh, but sister in our darkness a light shines
  • Stealth Pun:
    • From "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie": "Every rook and jay in the Corvidae's been ravin'*about me too"
    • From "Bear's Vision of St. Agnes": "We'll both be decked in Herringbone" - while herringbone is a type of fabric, it also refers to a pattern of wood flooring, often on, well, decks and patios.
  • Stepford Smiler: According to the singer in "Silencer", his past lover did this.
    She put on happiness like a loose dress
    Over pain I'll never know
  • Suddenly Shouting: Done in "C-Minor", "O, Porcupine", "Red Cow", "Rainbow Signs", and "Tortoises All the Way Down".
  • Surreal Music Video:
    • The music video for "All Circles" can loosely be described as a Stop Motion Fantasy-version of Pearl Jam's Do the Evolution. It has some references to the narrative of Ten Stories, but the overall story is quite incomprehensible.
    • The music video for "Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)" features the band performing at a High-School Dance, à la Back to the Future, when the abduction of one of the dancers at the hands of Secret Police results in them fading out of existence on stage, much to the bafflement of their audience.
  • Textless Album Cover: All of them excepting some versions of It's All Crazy! and Ten Stories. Nonstandard singles/collections Other Stories, Cleo's Ferry Cemetary and [A→B] Live also avert this.
  • Title-Only Chorus: "Aubergine"
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: It's All Crazy! on a whole is this for the entire band. Compare the difference in tone in "Bullet to Binary" in [A→B] Life to "Bullet to Binary (Pt. Two)"; it's like night and day.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: "Nice and Blue (Pt. Two)" involves the singer learning to let go of and move on from the failed relationship mentioned in "Nice and Blue". While many of the lyrics are repeated, the singer's calmer tone indicates that he's come to terms with the pain of losing her, and rather than asking her to remember him at the end of the song, he asks instead that she forget him.
  • Tragic Hero: Most of the leading characters of Ten Stories fall into this, with the exceptions of Elephant, Walrus, and Julian.
  • Triumphant Reprise: The acoustic version of "I Never Said That I Was Brave hidden in the final track of [A→B] Life is much gentler in both vocals and instrumentation, while also rearranging the lyrics so that it ends on a much sweeter note.
  • "Untitled" Title: [Untitled] and the untitled EP, obviously.
  • Unusual Euphemism:
    • Describing addictive sweets as "cocaine" in "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie".
    • A significant portion of "Fig with a Bellyache" is made up of these.
  • Wanderlust Song: "Cattail Down" is a song about "Aaron's adventures in hitchhiking and train-hopping" according to Mike. The lyrics are clearly about the band's life on the road, traveling from place to place whenever convenient.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A major theme of "Nice and Blue (Pt. Two)", which reflects the changes in the singer's perspective since writing "Nice and Blue".
  • War Is Hell: "August 6th" seems to have this as a main theme, especially considering what event happened on the titular date.
  • Wedding/Death Juxtaposition: A major motif in Pale Horses with respect to Aaron's spouse and father, respectively.
  • Wham Line:
    • "Tie Me Up! Untie Me!" has this due to the Lyric Swap mentioned above.
    • "But Mama why four fires burning, why so quiet Father's room?" from "Four Fires". It's the moment Rabbit realizes that the Fortune Teller's prediction was correct: his dad has died.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Rabbit's story is this to the Parable of the Progidal Son, only with a darker twist: his father dies before he can return home.
  • Wild Wilderness: The setting of much of Ten Stories takes place in the wilderness of Montana in the later years of the 20th century.
  • Word Salad Lyrics: "Fig with a Bellyache", "Aubergine", and "Watermelon Ascot" can border on this at times ("Watermelon Ascot" in particular makes a lot of obscure references to American culture and history). Given that they all have produce in their titles...
  • The World Is Just Awesome: It's this realization that convinces Aaron in "Mexican War Streets" to not go through with his attempted suicide.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: One of the main themes of "Cardiff Giant". Tiger and Peacock come to realize that they're magnificent, unique creatures, and that it's only the Circus which has convinced them that they're little more than slaves.
I do not exist, only You exist...

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