I can tell you this: It's pretty hard to get your hands on the eponymous major label debut from this band. But Darth Bezos can get you anything. The music isn't as old as I thought, but the original songs appear to have been composed between 1994-1997.
I just had flashbacks to my early days as a Christian in the late '90's, and their music was resonating well into the early aughts. Sorrow and struggle, sin and wandering, changes the tenor of everything we hear from them. It still has that pretentious charm of a Serious Band Doing Serious And Real Jesus Songs. It's like they would wink and smile at the prospect of not being played on Christian radio. That's kind of the point.
I have had some negative and probably uncharitable reactions to Derek Webb and some of his songs, but I'm still a fan. He's an intriguing vocalist, and has apparently never lacked for something to say. The political and cultural fault-lines being what they are, it's inevitable that he'd be derided as a "liberal" and a "social justice warrior." But listen guys: You've done this to yourselves. "Evangelical" just isn't big enough to answer the pleas for justice--no, the demands--and it never was. All your artist types are nearly destined to be enraged, graceless mutterers, especially if they don't stay close to grace. And of course, one big problem is Sola Scriptura, and the lack of agreement in the Protestant world on major issues of dogma and morality. And please spare me the "Catholics are divided, too!" objection. The major riposte to that is this: The "right" answer on anything is knowable, and freely available, probably believed and taught for centuries.
"Bus Driver" is still my favorite song on the record, even if it was never as deep as we thought at the time. "Standing Up For Nothing" is the other. And "Center Aisle" is worth it, even if it is exactly what it is: a window into someone else's deep grief, something I think I shouldn't be hearing. Then again, in sharing it, they invite us as friends into that grief.
Once again, I apologize for being a musical ignoramus generally, in terms of the music. But what can you do? With pop music, probably ignorance is bliss. It's still a great listen.
I just had flashbacks to my early days as a Christian in the late '90's, and their music was resonating well into the early aughts. Sorrow and struggle, sin and wandering, changes the tenor of everything we hear from them. It still has that pretentious charm of a Serious Band Doing Serious And Real Jesus Songs. It's like they would wink and smile at the prospect of not being played on Christian radio. That's kind of the point.
I have had some negative and probably uncharitable reactions to Derek Webb and some of his songs, but I'm still a fan. He's an intriguing vocalist, and has apparently never lacked for something to say. The political and cultural fault-lines being what they are, it's inevitable that he'd be derided as a "liberal" and a "social justice warrior." But listen guys: You've done this to yourselves. "Evangelical" just isn't big enough to answer the pleas for justice--no, the demands--and it never was. All your artist types are nearly destined to be enraged, graceless mutterers, especially if they don't stay close to grace. And of course, one big problem is Sola Scriptura, and the lack of agreement in the Protestant world on major issues of dogma and morality. And please spare me the "Catholics are divided, too!" objection. The major riposte to that is this: The "right" answer on anything is knowable, and freely available, probably believed and taught for centuries.
"Bus Driver" is still my favorite song on the record, even if it was never as deep as we thought at the time. "Standing Up For Nothing" is the other. And "Center Aisle" is worth it, even if it is exactly what it is: a window into someone else's deep grief, something I think I shouldn't be hearing. Then again, in sharing it, they invite us as friends into that grief.
Once again, I apologize for being a musical ignoramus generally, in terms of the music. But what can you do? With pop music, probably ignorance is bliss. It's still a great listen.
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