Anti-Climacus

LINK: Interesting article from Stylus, by a guy who spent most of his formative years listening to primarily Christian rock-type music, but, against type for this sort of story, says very wonderful things about how the experience was for him, and concludes, I think, quite excellently:

"I never intended to bury CCM, but over time, it happened. Any third party would’ve held it to be inevitable. Much of what Mr. Sullivan said in GQ about the tepid musical bounds of most CCM is true; but it would not have behooved his article to trumpet the numerous exceptions. To be sure, my journey into secular music has been quite the lesser salvation. The core principle informing my adolescent faves remains constant: Jesus Christ is the son of God whose willing death enabled the eternal life of a human race irredeemable otherwise. And if I shake my head wanly at a lot of my first choices in music, I still must salute the beliefs that informed both the product and my purchase. Yeah, the secular peaks of* quality are higher. Yeah, there’s so much areligious stuff that lays bare the soul. Yeah, you can be a believer and operate outside the lines of CCM. Yeah, those were some resonant, joyous times."

I never, of course, really 'did' the Christian music 'thing,' and I can't say that I feel very terrible on having missed out on that (though much of the very high quality stuff has been forwarded to me in the last few months, and I feel confident that an All-Star United can probably stand with anything short of the very best in secular music, and they probably managed more in the way of consistency than most bands; and my experience kicking around Presbyterian churches for the last few years has given me over again a tremendous appreciation for why those hymns have been around as long as they have, and my recent experiences in looking for a new church have convinced me that there's a lot to be said for more contemporary forms of worship music, so I don't think myself entirely off the reservation). But there's something in the feeling of this particular article that really resonates with my experience nonetheless.

And, in a slightly asymmetrical spirit, things which have been at the top of my ipod's rotation lately:

"The Day We Hit the Coast" -Thrush Hermit; they tend to sound a lot like Thin Lizzy (sometimes A LOT like Thin Lizzy), but they're a little more mellow here, and the song makes for an effective 6:32.

"So Weit Wie Noch Nie" -Jurgen Pappe; German microhouse: need I say more?

"Fleur de Lie" -Slow Dazzle; if it's been approaching 100° for most of the last week where you are, as it has here, this might not make for bad background music.

"Heard About Your Band" -Brakes; any song which namechecks Karen O, Sleater-Kinney and Electralane is pretty impressive--the 'whatever dude!' ending is also quite good.

"Valeurs Personelles" -Cornershop; I think it's fair to say I love everything even vaguely associated with France, except for anything having to do with their politics.

*says 'or,' but I assume 'of' for grammatical simplicity