Catch for Us the Foxes

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Catch For Us the Foxes

Studio album by mewithoutYou
Released	October 15, 2004
Recorded	Seagrass Studios (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	Post-Hardcore
Length	45:59
Label	Tooth & Nail Records
Producer(s)	Brad Wood
Catch For Us the Foxes · All Music Guide
mewithoutYou chronology
[A→B] Life (June 18, 2002)	Catch For Us the Foxes (October 5, 2004)	Brother, Sister (September 26, 2006)

Catch For Us the Foxes is mewithoutYou's second full-length album. It contains twelve original studio tracks.

The album's title comes from Song of Songs 2:15, a verse of the Bible that says, "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." (NIV) Song of Songs has long been considered by Christians to be not only a love poem between a man and his lover, but also an extended metaphor for a Christian believer's relationship with God. It is fitting, then, that mewithoutYou's album title quotes that book of the Bible. "Catch For Us the Foxes" is packed with both poetic love lyrics and spiritual references. Some lines use overtly Biblical language, such as the words, "Jonah," or "Sinai." Outside of the actual Bible, theological ideas are introduced by the lyrics. "Purity of heart is to want one thing," words muttered thickly in the chorus of the song "Leaf," are the title of Soren Kierkegaard's book Purity of Heart is To Will One Thing. The connection between physical love and spiritual devotion is made obvious as a key theme through so many spiritual references, mixed with love lyrics.

Chapter 2 verse 15 of Song of Songs hints at some of the dysfunctions of the relationship portrayed in the book. This is another reason the album's title is so fitting, as the lyrics show spiritual and love lives shaken by anger and doubt. Relationships portrayed in the album, both romantic and spiritual, are tense and full of dysfunction, awe, and passion, three key components of their base verse in Song of Songs.

Other quotations

Track 1 quotes Matthew 11:17, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn."(NRS)

Track 7 quotes 1 John 4:16, "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." (NIV)

Track 10 quotes Down in The River to Pray (song) "As I went down in the river to pray/ Studying about that good old way/ And who shall wear the starry crown/ Good Lord, show me the way!/ O sisters let's go down/ Let's go down, come on down/ O sisters let's go down/ Down in the river to pray."

Other allusions

Track 1- "Tell all the stones we're gonna make a building; they'll be cut into shape and set into place. Or if you'd rather be a window, I'll gladly be the frame..." This could allude to 1 Peter 2:6, "...-you also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual house..." (NIV)

Track 1- "Under a bowl, or under a lampshade" This could allude to Matthew 5:15, "...-Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house."

Track 2- "If I could become the servant of all, no lower place to fall..." This could allude to the Christian virtue of servanthood, illustrated throughout the New Testament. One example is in Matthew 23:11-12, "The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (NIV)

Track 8- "She was like wine turned to water and turned back to wine." This could allude to the narrative of Jesus' first miracle told in John 2:1-11

Track 10- "He'll make the rabbits and rocks sing His praise." This could refer to Luke 19:40: "'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'" (NIV)