After the rambling folkiness of it’s all crazy! many mewithoutYou fans weren’t sure what to expect. Several friends washed their hands of the band, firmly deciding that their best days were behind them.

And even though I had liked it’s all crazy! I must admit that a part of me worried that it might be more than a one-off. When the first singles were released from Ten Stories, the fanbase was apprehensive.While it maintained a fair amount of folksiness and Aaron’s penchant for animalistic storytelling, it sounded like a proper mewithoutYou record again. Free of the confines of it’s all crazy! the band stretches their arms and flexes their muscles.  The opening chord crashes of “February 1878” are soon joined by Rickie Mazzotta’s manic drumming and Aaron Weiss’s trademark shouted vocals.

It’s a welcome return-to-form, but it’s slightly misleading. Anyone expecting this to be another Catch For Us the Foxes was disappointed to find that Aaron spends most of his time singing rather than shouting (that sense of disappointment was only exacerbated by the fact that both advanced singles, “February” and “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume” were the shoutiest songs on the record).

But that disappointment is hardly deserved. This may retain a lot of elements from its immediate predecessor (including the return of producer Daniel Smith, with longtime mewithoutYou Brad Wood mixing), but it’s far from the quirky Neutral Milk Hotel soundalike that it’s all crazy! was.

This sounds like mewithoutYou again. When I first heard it, I remarked that it sounded like the missing album between Brother, Sister and it’s all crazy! It exists in the middle ground between Brother, Sister’s raw prophetic punk and crazy’s whimsy.

And that middle ground is ripe with some of the most moving songs they’ve ever written. “Grist For the Melody Mill” might find Aaron with an acoustic guitar in his hands, but its aided by Rickie’s angular drumming, Greg’s commanding bass lines, and Mike’s atmospheric riffs (this is the first album without Christopher Kleinburg. Brandon Beaver, who would join the band later, is credited as a guest musician).  “Aubergine” is probably still the most delicately gorgeous thing they’ve ever done.  “Nine Stories” is the perfect blend of their folksy tendencies and punk sensibilities.  “The Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes” is as stunning and morose a ballad as the group has made before or after. And while I’m not a Paramore fan, it’s probably worth mentioning that Haley Williams pops up every once in a while.

Lyrically, this is some of Aaron’s most focused work. While every mewithoutYou album had recurring themes scattered throughout the album, Ten Stories is an honest-to-goodness concept record. The record opens with the derailing of a circus train (as shown on the cover, as always created by Vasily Kavanof). The record then follows each animal as they make their separate escapes—each creature acting as a distinct philosophical school. “Elephant in the Dock” is probably the most well-executed song, pitting the existential elephant that derailed the train against an angry jury. It’s dense stuff—don’t expect to make much sense of it without an annotated lyric sheet.

But as much as I enjoy this record, there’s something just slightly off about it that keeps it from being the triumphant return of mewithoutYou that we were all hoping for. “Cardiff Giant” and the first half of “Fiji Mermaid” are both a bit abrasively quirky (I blame Danielson).  [A–>B] Life, Catch For Us the Foxes, and Brother, Sister were all perfect tens in my book. it’s all crazy! broke that streak, and while Ten Stories was a welcome return to form, it wasn’t able to completely recapture that fire.

That would come later.