I’ve shared this on several occasions, but one of the most insane shows I’ve ever seen was mewithoutYou’s set at the 2002 Cornerstone festival. Despite the sweltering July heat, the band delivered a blistering set decked out in black suits and turtlenecks that left them drenched in sweat and on the verge of heat stroke. Indeed, drummer Rickie Mazzotta ran off the stage as soon as their set was over and collapsed on the ground as people poured ice on him.

That sort of reckless, even foolish, abandon sums up mewithoutYou for me, and it abounds on their sophomore album. Aaron Weiss sounds like he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown as he cries, screams, and yelps about his moral failings and corruptible human nature. (The album’s title is a reference to Song of Solomon and those seemingly trivial sins that ruin one’s life.) On “The Soviet,” he confesses “When I looked down like if to pray/Well, I was looking down her dress/.” But he also confesses his own deep need for God (“If there was no way into God/I would never have laid in this grave of a body/So long,” “Carousels”).

Weiss’s lyrics can get pretty flowery and effusive. However, his bandmates’ ferocious and inventive playing ensures that Catch for Us the Foxes remains consistently bracing. Although these twelve songs land comfortably in the “post-hardcore” genre, the band also weaves in chiming guitars that evoke classic U2 while the churning rhythms recall The Cure’s darker moments. And if those weren’t enough, psychedelic flourishes drift through the album, including Hebrew chants from Psalters’ Scotty Kruger.

Much like that Cornerstone 2002 performance, it’s a wondrous racket that sounds like it could fly apart at any moment. But as I wrote in my original review, “the result is an album where nearly every single song grabs you by the throat with something — a melodic hook, a massive chorus, or simply Weiss’s impassioned vocals intoning another tale of desperation and brokenness.”