Listener

Most people associate music with singing. Fewer people allow screaming to be part of music. However, not many people can think that plain spoken word can be used in music. When lyrics are powerful enough and the instrumentals can accompany the words, spoken word music can be extremely powerful. Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou is a perfect representation of those concepts. But even mewithoutYou has some singing. Listener is pretty much poetry backed by indie guitars and drums. The mewithoutYou comparisons are valid though, as Dan Smith can pretty much be described as Aaron Weiss with a southern twang in his voice. For those that prefer just the lyrics, Listener also has the entire album without the instrumentals. Listener may not be for everyone, but the band is definitely special. Listen to Wooden Heart on Bandcamp here and listen/download to the poetry version here.