Words or Images, Words and Images?

Do we think and interpret mostly in words or images?

From my couch, I can see a piece of cardstock. It’s hanging from a piece of string that is strung across the mantle of our fireplace.

But it’s not just any piece of paper.

It is red rectangle with a solid white boarder and measures about 2 ½ inches in width and 3 ½ inches in height. In the bottom right quadrant, a white triangle stands on its tip. Resting on top of the triangle are three green-hued half circle like spheres, stacked on top of one another.

It’s a birthday card. On its front is a drawing of an ice cream cone.

Sitting from the vantage point of my couch I’m able to look at the card, analyze its components and recognize it as “ice cream cone”. With virtually no effort my brain translates the image (red rectangle, triangle, spheres) into words (ice cream cone) and concepts (birthday card).

Certainly there is a strong correlation between images and words, pictures and concepts? But does one drive the other? This question came to a head when I read 17^th century theologian Polanus’ fine definition of Bible interpretation:

The interpretation of sacred Scripture is the exposition of the true sense and use of it, organized in clear words for the glory of God and for the edification of His Church.

While there is much to reflect upon here (e.g. “true sense” of scripture? I wonder how this term might play out in debates concerning the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture? Is there a supra-historical meaning of the text that lays beyond its historical form?), the words italicized above captured my fancy: interpretation of Scripture is “organized in clear words”. Reformation iconoclast tendency aside, Polanus suggests that the results of a detailed investigation into the true sense and use of Biblical words, stories, and texts are to be conveyed in “clear words”. Not images or pictures, but clear words.

Clarity in interpretation seems straightforward in theory and harder in practice. Anyone who has been given the task of conveying the Word of God knows clarity in interpretation is ¾ of the battle.

For me the issue is the use of words. Does Biblical interpretation preclude the use of images? And if not, do words take priority and precedent over images?

Bear in mind I ask this as someone who is much more verbal than visual. About the worst thing you could ask of me would be to give me a blank piece of paper and some paint and tell me to make something.

But the scenario with the card got me thinking, can images convey meaning beyond words? Do we need words to make sense of an image? In the case of Biblical interpretation (which following Polanius is not a historical-critical exercise drawn independent of a Biblical theology or ethic, but combination of the exposition of true words and events that give meaning to our world today), should the use of images be used concurrently with words?

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Why I Love my Church

I’ve been a part of First Presbyterian Church in Bellingham, Washington for just over 13 years. I wouldn’t trade it for another. It’s not a perfect church. No church is. Still, I love my church. Today I was given three healthy reasons why.

First, it’s Presbyterian. I’ll just leave it at that.

Second, it’s not always pretty.

No one would ever consider FPC of being polished. No ministry magazine will knock on our door asking us to host a ministry in the 21^st century webinar. We miss cues. There are more technical hiccups than I’d care to admit. And let’s not forget the dreaded dead spaces. The service generally incorporates the buzzing beehive of noise that is crying babies and anxious kids. We pray a lot. We confess our sins. (Who wants to be remided of that?) And then we pray some more. Not everyone that stands to speak was born to do so. From a purely professional standpoint, it leaves something to be desired. If you wanted to critique it and run a review in the paper, you would have plenty of reasons to complain.

It isn’t amateur hour either. We have immensely wonderful talented, Spirit-filled people creating music, writing and giving prayers, preaching sermons, and pushing us into devoted care and service for all that we meet. Still, we’re human. And that means Sunday morning isn’t always the paradigm of beauty.

And I love that. It’s a tangible reminder of how God’s grace comes to us. It’s in this messiness, these failures, and moments of weaknesses that I’m confronted by the character of God.

God’s salvation didn’t come pretty. It came in a man born and raised in a backwoods town. Most of his life didn’t warrant mention. He made his name as a wandering preacher of the rule of God, healer of the lame, one who eats with all kinds, and a challenger of the religious status quo. It didn’t end well either. Just when things seemed to be going his way, the tables were turned and he was crucified as a blasphemous, God-forsaken, political rebel. And in the end, this same Jesus of Nazareth was vindicated by God the Father in his resurrection from the dead, bringing forgiveness, healing, and life for all.

Like any church, FPC is a group of real people. We do your taxes. We pour your coffee. We teach your children. We park next to you. On Sunday morning we’re real people who gather together as ones who have been vindicated by God through the power of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. We live as people who experience God’s presence in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We come not as people who have it all together, who have everything figured out, and then put on a show to impress each other or whoever might show up. It’s not a time to pat each other’s back on the ways we have it figured out. It’s not a time to celebrate how we’ve got it right. It’s not even a time to point out where those around us have got it wrong.

We come as people who do what we can to offer what we have. We come to give our thanks and gratitude to God.  We come to listen and hear.  We come to proclaim. We come to encounter God and to be changed. I know I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel this in our awkwardness, messiness, and fragility. It’s by God’s grace we’re gathered. It’s by God’s grace we’re healed.

Finally, FPC is a church that affirms, encourages, and enables the Spiritual gifts of women. At FPC, all women are given a chance to use their God-given gifts to minister, equip, challenge, and encourage the entire body of faith—man or woman, adult or child.

This morning the music was led by the talented Jocelyn Meyer. As usual her choice of songs was purposeful and appropriate to the themes of the morning. She led the worship to in a set of songs that were an equal mix of frailty and wild abandon. Technically proficient, they never focused the attention on themselves. They did what they were there to do: lead the congregation in songs of thankfulness and praise.

The prayers were delivered by Linda Kolody. She guided the congregation in a communal praying for not only our community but for our entire world. She prayed for a government that transcends political differences but zeroed in on the concerns of the Kingdom. She prayed with honesty and fearlessness and was grounded in our hope in Christ.

Lastly Lisa Schwank brought a beautiful message of God’s healing power. In her own word and voice she proudly and powerful proclaimed God’s word. In it I was confronted by God to my own inertia and willingness to simply accept as is the areas of my life that need healing. I was reminded of just how much a willingness to receive the healing of Christ means a radical rupture of my carefully constructed life. To put it bluntly, Lisa faithfully proclaimed God’s Word to God’s people and I am thankful for that.

I’m thankful that I’m a part of a congregation that allows these wonderfully gifted women to use their gifts to minister to not only me but the entire congregation. They fearlessly allowed themselves to proclaim God’s word to a broken, yet being restored, people of faith.

My hope is that everyone can say this about their church. I don’t want anyone to leave their church for mine. But if you’re in town on a Sunday morning, we’d love to see you here.

God Wants Us to Eat Whatever We Want?

Over the Christmas holiday, I read this little article about Rupublican politicians who are supportive of First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity efforts.

Of course, since the issue at hand is a political one, the article devotes much of its space focusing on Obama’s detractors, notably the magnetic Sarah Palin. Since the horrific shootings in Tuscon and the grotesque political posturing in the shooting’s wake, the verbal spats found here seem petty and inconsequential. Still, there was one comment by Palin that deserves mentioning.

According to the article, Palin appeared on talk-show host Laura Ingraham’s radio program in order to promote her new book. At one point in the interview the conversation turned to Palin’s criticism of Obama’s efforts to encourage individuals to voluntarily fight obesity by changing their eating habits. This rubbed Palin the wrong way.  She perceived it as indicative of a nation gone soft and an attack on a person’s right to choose whatever they want to eat. Politicians (or anyone else presumably) should:

“get off our back and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions” (emphasis mine).

It matters little to me that it was Sarah Palin who made this statement.  What matters to me is that it is indicative of a common and severe theological confusion on matters of freedom and individual rights. Palin, and she’s not alone in this sentiment, seems to be suggesting that as individuals God has given us the freedom or right to do whatever the hell we want and no one, let alone any politician or government, has any right to say otherwise. Our freedom to do as we please is written in the very DNA of creation and any attack on this liberal freedom is not only an attack on freedom but an attack on the very God who granted this boundless freedom.

From a strictly Judeo-Christian perspective, this is wildly false. Now, I will admit that in one regard we are free to behave as we choose. We’re morally responsible free agents. But in the end we’re accountable for those choices. We’re accountable because we are given directives by God as to the patterns in which we live our life.  Those God-given patters of living take specific and concrete forms.  To put it another way: we’re not free to do whatever the hell we want. We live under the authority of the Word of God, i.e. Jesus Christ as he is attested in Scripture.  As people who live under the authority of the Word, we have a limited and contingent freedom dependent upon God’s total claim over our lives.

Even excluding my interpretation of God and freedom, I don’t think Palin or anyone else holding her libertine position of a freedom derived from our “God-given rights to make our own decisions” would allow the purposeful ending of another person’s life.  Doing whatever the hell we want doesn’t allow for that.

Perhaps what Palin meant when she voiced the conventional wisdom that we have a “God-given right to make our own decisions,” she was referring to trifling matters such as the food we consume. In a Kantian sense, maybe there are some universals that we just should never do (e.g. purposely and maliciously taking another’s life) but in smaller matters such as the food consumed there is a God-given right to do whatever the hell we want.

But again, this isn’t correct. The Old Testament devotes an inordinate amount of space to what God’s covenant people could and could not eat, when and where they could eat it, and how it should be prepared. Simply put, what they put in their mouth wasn’t a matter of a “God-given right to make their own decisions”.

While many of the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament were restricted or abolished by Jesus, there is an even more demanding call: total obedience to the command of Christ. This call to total obedience is one of moderation and submission (even to *gasp* political authorities). Jesus’ command is one of total loyalty to his claim over our lives.  This is hardly the type of “God-given rights” Palin seems to think we have.

Perhaps I’m reading the situation incorrectly. Perhaps she meant something entirely different. Perhaps “God” was simply an archaic deistic injunction to natural law philosophy.  If so, please leave God out and call it what it is. But if I’m right, please leave God out it and leave the theology to those better equipped.

fpckyle Bacroynym Contest

Some time in December my fantastic co-workers decided the actual meaning of the “fpc” in this url wasn’t working for them. Surely, “fpc” must have a more elaborate meaning. Hence a simple idea was born: create a new meaning for the acronym (i.e. a "bacronym"). A jar was placed on my desk and for one month co-workers submitted their entries. I promised that on my birthday I would read them, pick a winner, and bestow the winner with a generous prize.  Knowing my creative co-workers, I should have known the competition would be fierce.  Too fierce actually. So dear readers, I need your help. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Without further ado and in no particular order:

• Fortuitous Paternal Chap
• Fentucky Pried Chicken
• Falciformed Palfreys Center
• Feed the Poor Children
• French Pancake Challenge
• Fun Preaching to Children
• Feeling Pretty Cool
• Fancy Pants Catastrophe
• Fractured Pembroke Castle
• Flip-flop Paranoid Child
• Fruity Pebbles Connoisseur
• Further Progress Contained
• Fiercely Precocious Catechisms
• Farmer Poetic Cook
• Forciferous Protagonists Convolve
• Finally, Peter’s Chaffing!
• Free Preachin’ Communicant
• Funny, Puny Children
• Finely Patterned China
• Frighteningly Pliable Concepts
• Fat Policeman’s Cupcake
• Finally, Prince Caspian!
• Freakin’ Parkour Champ
• Force People to Change
• Flatulence Prevents Cancer
• First, Pet Chaldeans
• Funk-Parliament Cheyeah!
• Fanderson, P. Chyle
• Frozen Portable Chimichangas
• Free Perry Como!
• Fish Pondering Christianity
• Fortified Pollexes, Calloused!
• Fairly Pernicious Children
• Frozen Peas & Carrots
• Functionally Paronomosaic Choruses
• Fantastically Prodigious Cortex

What Jim Morrison Taught Me about the End

I once had a roommate who was really into the Doors. I think the only two books I ever saw him read were a biography of Jim Morrison and a collection of “poetry” by Morrison himself. It probably doesn’t need to be said, but he listened to the Doors a lot. Since the Doors were lame, I tuned most of it out. Although I would never publicly admit to actually liking it, there was one song that sort of stuck with me: “The End”. It’s a hard song to ignore.  At 12 ½ minutes, its an epic hallucinogenic trip replete with over-wrought emoting from the dark prince himself. The lyrics themselves are an impressionist smattering of self-destruction, violence, ego, and finality as the narrator embraces his own end: “this is the end/beautiful friend/this is the end/my only friend, the end”.

While Morrison would have us believe the meaning of the song is open, it seems to me that for him, the end was simply the end. It was the finish. The point-of-no-return. It was the abyss that cannot be crossed.

For me, then and now, the end is something different. It is something new. With Bonhoeffer, I say the end is the beginning of life.

This is something that 2000 years of Christian thinking backs up. The end is not some cataclysmic decent into a nihilistic void, but flush with energy, vitality, and … life. It is the hope for the resurrection of the body, union with Christ and life eternal.

But is this end a beautiful friend?

On more than one occasion the Church has been accused of shirking the responsibility of our present historical reality and slipping into a passive waiting for this end. Why fight for justice now when you got your ticket punched for the big dance? Pop critics of the Church love pointing out all the times we have been on the wrong side of progressive social change. And guess what? They have a point. Sort of.

One of the greatest treasures of 20^th century theology has been a revitalized vigor for a Christian eschatology that can embrace both the otherwordly nature of “the end” and combine it with a passion for justice in the here and now. Biblical scholar George Ladd referred to it as the “already/not yet” aspect of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom was and is present in the person and work of Jesus Christ but is waiting its ultimate consummation in the end. In this sense, “the end” includes a vital social component. Just as the kingdom Jesus proclaimed and actualized involved care for the marginalized, the righting of wrongs and a cosmic renewal of the creation, our “end” reflects that same reality only in its total fulfillment.

But my favorite contributor to this movement has been the writing of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann. According to Moltmann, “the end” can, is, and should also be realized here and now. In this present moment, we live into “the end” by practicing the reality of our “end”. In his epoch-making The Coming of God, he affirms our very existence is one in which we live in “an expectation of the future in the eschatological context of the end, and the new creation of the world.” (192)

This means the end is already present in an anticipatory form. In anticipating the end, we are called to participate in the proleptic human struggle for God’s justice. Of this he writes specifically of the apocalyptic book of Revelation. It

… was not written for "rapturists" fleeing from the world, who tell the world ‘goodbye’ and want to go to heaven; it was meant for resistance fighters, struggling against the godless powers on this earth (153)

So while the book of Revelation imaginatively depicts a revealing picture the end, it becomes an invitation for resistance against the present evil world order.  For John and the early Church that was Rome. Today you have a different Rome. You might even be Rome. Just don’t let waiting for the end get in your way.

To you a Savior

"To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord."—Luke 2:11

For those of you who know me, this shouldn’t surprise you:  I’ve always liked Karl Barth’s writing on the incarnation.  To me Barth grasps the saving significance of the incarnate life of Jesus Christ.  Salvation was wrought in the incarnate life of the mediator—the Word made flesh who dwelt among us.

Of Jesus this must be said.  For the work of Jesus is the work of the Savior.  And the saving work which brings deliverance and life consists materially in the fact that He gives Himself.  We may not and must not understand by the title Savior only the death in which he consummates the self-devotion of His life, but His whole existence.  He is the Savior, and is born as such, in the fact that He is for the many, for the World. (Church Dogmatics III/2, 61)

Father of the Year

I am father of the year.

I apologize to those who thought they might win, but I clinched the victory in early October.

It was mid-Saturday morning.  I noticed that we were running desperately low on three staples that fuel our household: coffee, bananas, and bread.  Normally, Lindsay does the grocery shopping but today I volunteered.  Adding to my heroism, I also offered to take the kids with me.  So there I was:  Saturday morning after a long, hard week of work and I was taking the kids grocery shopping!  My medal was minted.

I slowly and carefully strapped the navy blue Baby Bjorn^® onto my body and gently placed Max inside.  It had just enough masculinity to prove that I was male, but giving.  Not one of those emasculated types.  I was different.  Next, I pulled out our burnt-orange Bob^® stroller and Rory hopped on.  As anyone who has spent 12 minutes in downtown Bellingham on a Saturday knows, the Bob^® is not feminine at all.  It’s a jogging stroller.  And it rules.  As I began the three block trek, I thought about how much Lindsay deserved this 30 minute respite.  My pride was swelling.  Still, I didn’t realize how great a father I was until I reached Haggen and whipped out my re-useable grocery bags.

No shopper said a word, but their eyes betrayed their thoughts: “Wow! What a Dad!” “Shopping with the Kids? On a Saturday?” “I wish Jim was here to see this.  Unbelievable.”  With no extra purchases, I picked up our supplies and headed home without incident.  Lindsay was so pleased she spent her 30 minutes alone planning my parade and bragging to her friends.  Then she prepared a feast of pork loins in my honor.  I grilled them and watched Rory play in the back yard.

In his book Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon makes the point it doesn’t take much these days for dads to be praised.  The bar is set so low, a trip to grocery store with a kid or two is all it takes.  For him, he was even told outright by a fellow-patron that he was a good dad, she could tell.  Again, all he did was take the kids to the grocery store.  And this was in Berkley, where they’re pretty evolved as far as gender-busting roles are concerned.

Should it come as much of a surprise that a dad taking his kids to grocery store or fulfilling any other domestic duty is a prelude to sainthood?  We live in a country where women have been able to vote for only 100 years.  I don’t know about you but I find that extremely embarrassing.  “You take care of the house honey, leave the important things to me.”

For the complementarian (The male is the head of household and leader of the family.  The women was created by God as a helper to the man), this is ordained by God and written into the very fiber of the created order.  Consider the continental theologian Emil Brunner writing in 1939:

“The man is the one who produces, he is the leader; the woman is receptive, and she preserves life; it is the man's duty to shape the new; it is the woman's duty to write it and adapt it to be that which already exists. The man has to go forth and make the earth subject to him, the woman looks within and guards the hidden unity. The man must be objective and universalize, woman must be subjective and individualize; the man must build, the woman adorns; the man must conquer, the woman must tend; the man must comprehend all with the mind, the woman must impregnate all with the life of her soul. It is the duty of man to plan and to master, of the woman to understand and to unite.”

I pity the interior decorating firm where a female serves as president and CEO and hires a male decorator.  But is this really any different than the Wild at Heart movement started by John Eldredge?  While the book has waned in popularity, the thesis behind it thrives.

Eldredge believes humanity, according to Genesis 1:27, is created in the image of God as male and female.  However, because God does not have corporeality, gender is found at the soul and expressed through the heart.  The desires of a male heart, and thus “maleness”, are to have a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.  Conversely, the woman longs to be fought for, an adventure to share, and a beauty to unveil.  Closely related to this is a pattern of leadership where the man leads and the woman falls in line.  In church-life this means the man preaches and leads and the woman is moved to the side-line where she is encouraged to practice such gifts as hospitality or ministry to other women or children.

Or as a prominent “network” explicitly states in their doctrinal statement:

We are not egalitarians and do believe that men should head their homes and male elders/pastors should lead their churches with masculine love like Jesus Christ.

“Masculine love like Jesus Christ?”  So much for imitatio Christi being equal opportunity. As an egalitarian I wonder what Jesus would have done?  Would Jesus have slapped the bjorn upon his chest and rolled the stroller down the street?  If not, I better give back my trophy.  If he would have, I was simply doing what a man and father who is part of family should do.

Would Jesus have let a women preach?  His first resurrection appearance was to Mary after all.  He also gave her a task—go tell Peter and the other disciples the good news, that he was alive.  Sounds like a fine sermon to me.

Are these “roles” really Biblical?  Can we really argue that what sounds an awful lot like sociology is determinative of what it means to live as a male or female?  I am thankful that I have been surrounded by strong, talented, gifted, and fully human women preachers, professors, elders, mothers, bosses, and friends.  It’s in relation to these women and mostly in serving with such a wife that I recognize and understand my maleness. It’s in relation to these women (or any women for that matter) that I understand what it means to be created in the Image of God, male and female, and thus male or female.  I live my life as a man, husband, and father in an equal encounter with my wife where we walk, live, serve and lead together.

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 5-1

5. Eux Autres Broken Bow

I sometimes ask myself why I care about this stuff.  I’m nearly 32.  I’ve got two kids, a wife, and all those other grown up responsibilities.  What do I care what a couple of indie kids have been cooking up in their garage?

The short answer is I care because they care.  Eux Autres are going nowhere fast.  They will never headline the Paramount.  You’ll never hear them on the radio.  If they’re lucky, maybe Volkswagon will use one of their songs to hawk the Jetta.  Yet, here they are putting out their third album over the last five years.  They make music because they love making music.  I can’t help but hear that in every note.  I notice it in every fiber of my being.  I listen to their art because they’re passionate about their art.

Eux Autres are a two-piece brother/sister combo out of Portland, OR.  They write songs in English and French.  Their instruments are minimal:  Electric guitar, skeletal drums, and key board.  Their songs are simple: call and response vocals peppered with the standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus.  What Eux Autres lacks in polish, they make up for in passion.  What Eux Autres lacks in big budgets, they make up for in songwriting.

Take every hit song you’ve ever loved.  Imagine it its rawest form, stripped of any gloss, shine, or pretense.  That’s what I hear when I hear Eux Autres.  Its two people making the three-minute pop song in its rawest form.  This doesn’t mean their lazy.  It doesn’t mean there’s no talent, resolve, or finish.  It’s the aesthetic they capture and embody.  And as the album charges to the albums middle and Heather Larimer shouts out “you’re alight / you’re alight / our tongues were never tied” begging you to sing along with her, you know you’re part of something special.

Eux Autres "Go Dancing"

4.  the Radio Dept. Clinging to a Scheme

Without a doubt, the i-pod has changed the way I listen to music.  While the advent of the cd meant we could make mix-tapes and highlight individual songs, the cd was still tailor-made to be treated as a single, monolithic entity comprised of smaller units.  You listened from front to back with limited shuffle or skip.

Since I purchased my first i-pod five years ago I have started listening to more and more singles.  It’s easier now than ever to make playlists centered around certain songs.  Yet despite this, I can’t shake the album.  More so than any other album on this list, Clinging to a Scheme is an album’s album.  Comprised of ten, if not interchangeable cuts, it stands as a testament to the unyielding power of an album that’s meant to be listened to as a whole.

The Radio Dept. first emerged in the early 00’s as a neo-shoegaze act.  Heavy on the reverb and distortion, they used raw noise to get their point across.  Over the years, two albums and countless singles and eps later, the Radio Dept. have polished their sound to a more subtle haze.  If colors could sound, Clinging to a Scheme would be 32 shades of grey.  Perhaps unnoticeable at first, the patient listen begins to notice the shifting from one tone to the next, feeding into another, before cycling back to the first.

Certaintly, the Radio Dept. kept some of their earlier shoegaze qualities:  the fuzzy distortion is still there.  The electronically altered vocals and layers of keys make for a vast and deep sonic palate.  But it’s the muted restraint that helps you dig in and hear just how much is going on.

MP3: the Radio Dept. "Heaven's on Fire"

3.  Beach House Teen Dream

I was never prepared for this.  Beach House’s self-titled debut and sophomore follow-up Devotion came to me like a breath of fresh air.  I couldn’t think of a more appropriate name for a band.  They made music for a beach house.  Not some MTV party house, but a Washington coast beach house.  This was the music of a grey-sanded beach, 35 mile an hour gusts, and watching the pouring rain arrive on shore type of beach house.  Beach House took the unrelenting greatness of Mazzy Stars “Fade into You” and made it their own:  a guy, a girl with the most frighteningly beautifully breathy vocals you’ve ever heard, some drums, and a keyboeard.

But after releasing two outstanding and well-received albums that have seen them increase their fanbase and press coverage, I wasn’t quite sure what they could do to up the ante.  Well they did it.  Never did I think they would make an album that sounded so big.  It’s as if they pulled the covers from their chins, and moved this sound directly to the club at 1 am.  But not just any club.  This is a David Lynch film type of club.  This is the band that is playing as your mind begins to melt.  You fall in love with the chant of “I’ll take care of you”, you’re whisked away with the refrains of “Nooorw a a a a ay”.  You’re moved to dance with the beats of “Walk in the Park” and “Used to Be”.  Beach House has made the complete album with Teen Dream.  It might just be the album they’re forever measured.

MP3: Beach House "Zebra"

2. Math and Physics Club I Shouldn’t Look as Good as I Do

Complexity hides defects.

A four year wait for a full-length that features only 10 songs seems like an awful lot. Suppose though, those four years were spent crafting a batch of the perfect indie pop songs. Every day was spent trimming, refining, and re-arranging every guitar strum, every drum hit, and every lyric.  Suppose the end the result sounded so effortless, so simple, so perfect, you could only ask "what where they doing those four years?"

I'd like to think that's what's happening here. This is, by all means, not a complex record. It's three guys, ten songs, and a few chords. The lyrics are of the romantic variety (with a bit of tongue-in-cheek tom-foolery) and the choruses big.  I think it takes more work for this to sound effortless than they probably get credit for.

Where the band really hits the mark is its uncanny ability to take the little things and build upon it.  Take opener “Jimmy had a Polaroid”.  The song is a simple ode to the pleasures of taking pictures in the park or spinning your favorite record.  In a world that seems like it has gone made, songs like this remind you of the simple moments of life that make it worth it.  When the band tackles traditional topics like love and loss, they do so without ever sounding generic or trite.  As someone who is happily married I can relate to songs like “Will You Still Love Me” because I recognize my own shortcomings.  “I’ll Tell You Anything” speaks to the person who just wants to make the partner happy.  And who hasn’t felt the universal question of “is this love or is it just loneliness”.  That they whip it all together in a great big sing-along only heightens how accessible it all is.  This is why music is universal.  The best of the bunch write stuff that we all understand and make our own.

MP3: Math and Physics Club "Love or Loneliness"

1. Allo Darlin’ Allo Darlin’

I’ve been dreading writing this one.  What do you say about an album that has so completely floored you that your only option is to simply stand back, smile, and dance?

The best place to start is the Rendesvous Club in Seattle.  Lindsay and I got tickets to see the band play in October.  By that time, we’ve had and loved the album for awhile.  Like everyone else in the room, this was our first time seeing them play live.  Allo Darlin’ is the debut album of this UK-based band and this was their first US tour and first time in Seattle.  The show sold-out quickly.  Of course in this case, a sell-out meant 65 people.  But it didn’t matter.  Every person there was flat-out in love with this band.  I’ve never experienced anything like it. This was not a scene.  This was a celebration.  And the band brought it.  They described the night as a “slow boil”:  Starting slow and gradually building throughout.  To the band, it didn't matter that there was only a few dozen people there. They played like 300 or 3000. There was pure joy in their performance.  There was no place they’d rather be.  When they sang the refrain to "Silver Dollars" ("we do it/because we love it"), it was the truest sentiment that they could have offered.  I’ve been to hundreds of shows in my life.  This one took the prize for my favorite rock moment.

Musically, Allo Darlin’ falls in line with the path blazed by the Vasalines, Talulah Gosh, Tiger Trap, Belle and Sebastian, and Camera Obscura.  They’re thoroughly schooled in the indie-pop/twee/DIY aesthetic.  There is an optimism, joy, and celebration in the minute of life.  Every single song is full of good-natured declarations of hope and the power of change.  It’s full of humor (sample lyric from a song about punk pioneer and serious dude Henry Rollins that is not on the album, but serves as a nice illustration: "Henry asked the DJ to play some Abba Dude/and he raised his tiny fist to 'Dancing Queen' ".  There’s hand-claps, ba-ba-ba’s, and the power of the mighty ukulele.  Oh, and references to Weezer, Johnny Cash, the Just Jones, and Woody Allen.  With the exception of maybe the last one, every song demands to be your favorite.

I may be asking too much of it, but I could see this very well reaching the cult status of If You're Feeling Sinister.  It’s that solid of an album.  At the very least, trust me on this one.

"Polaroid Song"

"My Heart is a Drummer"

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 |10-6

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 10-6

10. Sambassadeur European

About five years ago bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Rapture began to make noise.  Much of their methodology involved mining the great northern European sounds of the early 80’s and updating it for the new millennium.  Often these bands drew much of their influence from the more punk-influenced dance bands such as Gang of Four and even later-Joy Division.  Dance and punk no longer became opponents in a war for club supremacy but co-existed in juxtaposed explosions of artistic freedom.

Concurrent with the dance-punk movement is a similar drawing from the well of the 80’s.  Only this movement took the lighter dance sounds of New Order and combined it with the preciousness and longing of Field Mice and the playful side of the Cure.  One of my favorites of the bunch is Sambassadeur.  Simply put they make grand European pop with a tiny twee flair. The songs are big, pretty, and grow. Unlike some artists (say, Jonsi) they don't get too cute or too precious or too enamored with their simultaneous bigness. But while they certainly have moments that seem to lead to the dance floor, it never slides into what you might call dance music.  At it’s core its grandiose dance music for people who don't like to dance.

MP3: Sambassadeur "Days"

9. Northern Portrait Criminal Art Lovers

Pretend Morrissey and Marr let bygones by bygones.  Pretend they secretly re-united and recorded an LP.  Then, instead of releasing it as the Smiths, they released it under a pseudonym.  Then, you being the uber-fan, scoured album after album trying to find this secret Smiths record.  With Criminal Art Lovers, the debut full-length by Northern Portrait, you might think you found it.

It’s easy to accuse Northern Portrait of hero-aping. Everything that made the Smiths the Smiths can be found here.  Grand, melodramatic vocals, bittersweet and caustically humorous lyrics, and bouncy guitar melodies.  It's jangle and hook my friends.  And it might not work if the songs weren't so catchy.

And much like how the Mary Onettes, who have also positioned themselves as an un-ironic 80's throwback who has a penchant for big chorus abd sweeping arrangements, what they lack in originality, they make up for in execution. On their 10-song LP, there isn't a loser in the bunch. As a whole, the album rises and falls, slows and picks up pace for the full 45 minutes, making an enjoyable and diverse listen. As an individual collection of songs, they shine. The albums first single, "Crazy", only takes one listen before you get the chorus, "crazy/why is this happening to me/crazy" stuck permanently in your hand. The title track "Criminal Art Lovers" bounces along with enough pep to leave you dancing.

MP3: Northern Portrait "New Favorite Moment"

8. She & Him Volume Two

Let me say this: I think She & Him are a benefactor/penalized by their own success. It's hard to imagine Volume One ever being noticed as much as it was if it wasn't made by M. Ward and a movie-star. That Volume One was noticed and well-receive made the lead-in hype for Volume Two even much more. That it was done as well as it has, I think, led to a lot of hipster backlash who refuse to enjoy/celebrate something made by M. Ward and a movie star. Thus, I think this is now in the love it or hate it crowd. I love it. Zooey Deschenel knows her voice. She knows her limits, she knows her strengths, she knows how to work it. She also knows how to write a catchy lyric. I'm not a huge M. Ward fan, but I like what he does with She & Him. He writes 60's inspires simple ditties that make themselves known but never overpower. This one, I believe, has staying power.

She & Him "In the Sun"

7. The School Loveless Unbeliever

In my world the Scotish popsters Camera Obscura rule the world.  In this world, The School  are the Welch Camera Obscura acolytes. Loveless Unbeliever is 13 simple songs crafted with a chorus in mind. They're fun. They're cute. They demand singing along. And there’s a subversive biting edge that makes the whole pill a bit more dangerous.  While this might not come as a surprise to those of you who are used to the bouncy keys and the swooning strings of Camera Obscura, there are differences.  Amazingly, the School are even more lush. Their gentle cooing vocals serve as a counterpoint to the chamber orchestra that dotes the ornate but preciously cute soundscapes. They're more willing to let the songs stretch out their legs and grow.

It's sound can most easily described as early-sixties girl groups meets Northern Soul, add some twee and indie-pop and shake around. No song stays to long. They draw you in with quiet hooks, competent musicianship, and just enough quirky percussion to make you notice. Add the breathy and sweet vocals of Liz (no last name...how twee!), and it's got a great foundation. When you consider that every song could be a single and begs repeat listen. We've got a minor classic.  In many a lesser year, this would probably be in contention for my favorite album of the year.

The School "Can't Understand"

6. Gigi Maintenant

 

There’s an old Digable Planets song where the group philosophizes about what it would be like “if the sixties and seventies were now”.  (Answers: 8-track walkmans, Isaac Hayes would have his own 1-900 number, and M.C. Hammer would be a pimp.  Remember this was the early 90’s.)  If you want to know what the early 60’s would have sounded like, this is probably a good guess.

In terms of retro revivalists of the early 60’s, She & Him got most of (deserved) glory.  Really, much more of it should go Gigi’s way.  Conceived as a NW super-group of sorts (Mirah, Parenthetical Girls, Karl Blau, Owen Pallet, etc.), this album is all Phil Spector. Alternating between male leads, female leads, and group choruses, this album doesn't pretend to be anything other than a good time looking back and a supposedly more innocent time and updating it for a modern audience. As an album that hangs on its numerous out-of-the-park singles, this a spectacular album for 1960 or 2010.

MP3: Gigi "No, My Heart Will Go On" 

Top 25 of 2010: 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 15-11

15. Patty Griffin Downtown Church

14. Tift Merritt See You on the Moon

Just so you don’t think I only listen to indie rock, here’s my two americana albums of the year.

Of the two, Tift Merritt is the more diverse.  Merritt seems more willing to break free of the confines of americana and embrace a wider musical palette.  She certainly embraces the typical singer-songwriter and rootsy stuff that generally passes for the genre.  Merritt, however, dips into soul and even into a bit of adult-contemporary soft pop rock (think Sheryl Crow).  Merritt is talented enough writer to make it sound her own without sounding derivative.

Patty Griffin made a gospel album.  This, as one would expect, is a good thing.  Produced by the great Buddy Miller, Griffin showcases her always getter better voice with numbers that have shaped her as an artist.  I’m not a big gospel music fan, but I am a big Patty Griffin fan and she didn’t let me down.  And the album closers “We Shall All be Reunited” and “All Creatures of Our God and King” are stunners.

Patty Griffin "Move Up" (Live)

Tift Merritt "Mixtape"

13. Belle & Sebastian Write About Love

Although it’s a coincidence that Belle & Sebastian and Damien Jurado fell next to each other in this list, it’s fitting.  They both suffer from the same fate:  a large and consistent back catalogue that features a fair number of stone-cold classics.

With that, it’s not entirely fair to compare Write About Love to albums/songs that preceded it.  It just doesn’t stand up to albums like If You’re Feeling Sinister, Tigermilk, or The Life Pursuit.  There is no “Boy with the Arab Strap”, “Piazza New York Catcher”, or “Lazy Line Painter Jane”.

Instead it’s another standout collection of Belle & Sebastian doing what they do best.  The 11 songs alternate between the jangly twee-pop and plaintive ballads.  They feature the same bittersweet storytelling of love and loss, joy and pain.  It continues the large sound forged by the previous two albums.  But rather than being a re-tread, dance-fueled numbers like “I Want the World to Stop” push the band in new directions.  The more familiar songs like the title-track continue to refine and perfect a formula that has been working for years.  The patient listener is able to pick up on just how well the band has been able to tweak what they’ve done well for so long.

It might be more of the same, but more of Belle & Sebastian’s same is a winning deal.

Belle & Sebastian "I Want the World to Stop"

12.  Damien Jurado Saint Bartlett

I don’t know how he does it.  Jurado keeps making strong album after strong album.  In a fair world, the attention bestowed on Bon Iver and Iron & Wine would go Jurado’s way. Instead, Jurado seems content with his cult followers and growing number of acolytes.

The pre-release hype of Saint Bartlett centered on Richard Swift's production. Considering Swift's pedigree is one of an immaculate producer who mines the past for updated time capsutle's of am gold and 50's and 60's minimialist rock 'n' roll and the fact that lead single "Arkansas" was a little nugget of late 50's rock meets Jurado's folk pop sensibilities, the hype seemed to be warrented. Then opening track, "Cloudy Shoes" and its multi-tracked vocal, layered, and dare I say lush orchestration, comes along and it seem like Jurado has re-invented himself.

Then the rest of the album comes along, which sounds a bit like every other Jurado albums. The final 8 songs alternate between Jurado in his guy and a guitar storyteller and Jurado in his low-fi, a guy with an electric guitar and an amp, minimalist rockers. He tells a good story. His sad sack, stock characters seemingly transcend their usual origens and become someone you care about due to Jurado's attention to songwriting detail. He checkers his stories with enough geography and artifacts to root them in a real history. Finally, the low-fi rockers give the album a balance that keeps it from getting too bogged down.

Still, there is no killer singles that allows it to rise drastically above some of his best work (e.g. Rehearsal's for Departure's four killer tracks strewn about a pretty unimpressive six tracks makes it seem much better than it is.). As a result, it's MOR Jurado. Not nearly as good as I Break Chairs, Ghost of David, Caught in Trees, or some of his outstanding eps. But, overall it's consitancy and variation makes it much better than and now I'm in Your Shadow and On my Way to Absence.  Plus, MOR Jurado is better than a whole lot else out there.

On a personal note, one of its best songs "Kalama" is the name of my hometown. It's a dinky, blink of a town on I-5 in southwest Washington. It's full of sad sacks, losers, drinkers, forgotten dreams, deadbeats, and dead ends. It's the perfect setting for a Jurado song.

Damien Jurado "Arkansas"

11. Jonsi Go

Jonsi is best known for the nymph that fronts Sigur Ros.  Wait, Sigur Ros doesn’t have a nymph as its vocalist?  Then who sings?  Jonsi?  Oh.

Colored me surprised by how much I liked this.  Sigur Ros had made a great career of these operatic, grandiose, stirring spectacles.  It was music from and for another world.  Consequently, Sigur Ros was perhaps the most exciting band of the 2000’s.  But I for one had grown weary of it.  Each progressive album felt more and more like a re-tread.  Things got so bad, I didn’t even bother with Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust.  The notable exception from that album was lead track “Gobbledigook”.  “Gobbledigook” told me that the band wasn’t content to operate on its own insular plane.  They began to look outward and look to their peers for inspiration.  In “Gobbledigook’s” case it was the giddy playfulness of the Animal Collective.  It worked.

On Go, Jonsi splits the difference between the ground well-traveled, but well loved by early Sigur Ros and combines it with the laughter of “Gobbledigook”.  Not surprisingly it’s the “Gobbledigook-esque” tracks like “Go Do” and “Lillikoi Boy” that got me.  They sound like Jonsi found a crayon box and when to town with a youthful abandon.  Playful and definitely childlike, Jonsi recaptured the wonder of those early Sigur Ros albums and does it in the brightest of colors.

Jonsi "Animal Arithmetic"


Albums 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 20-16

For albums 25-21, visit here.

20. The New Pornographers Together

Seriously, how good are the New Pornographers if Together is one of their lesser albums.  95% of the bands out there would kill to make an album this good.  The New Pornographers are a collective who makes powerful power-pop anthems.  Their hooks are the hookiest, the choruses the catchiest, and the vocals are the biggest.  Put it in, turn it up, and shout along.

The New Pornographers "The Crash Years"

19. Bubblegum Lemonade Sophomore Record

It’s fairly obvious Bubblegum Lemonade mastermind Laz McLuskey probably has a better record collection than you.  In a fine Scottish tradition, Bubblegum Lemonade mine the vaults of Jesus and the Mary Chain, toss in some Beach Boys, and add a pinch of Scottish twee.  The result is a bouncing collection of tunes that takes the ghosts of rock past and brings it into the present.

MP3: "Caroline's Radio"

18. Very Truly Yours Very Truly Yours

  

Remember the Sundays?  They had a minor hit in the 90’s with “Summertime”.  Well, here is their 2010 counterpart.  Very Truly Yours makes pretty, if non-descript, breezy, autumnal pop songs.  It’s an album to put on when you need to smile, when you need warmth, when you need to be reminded that the world isn’t a terrible place, when you need to know that there is joy and beauty all around.

MP3: "I'd Write You a Song"

17. Arcade Fire The Suburbs

  

Whatever accusations you made about me for my placement of Sufjan Stevens, feel free to do with Arcade Fire as well.  The only difference:  this album rules.  Every song is a fist pumping anthem.  It might very well be their best album yet.  It features the thematic complexity of Funeral and Neon Bible with an ever increasing prowess as musicians.  Arcade Fire might very well take the throne of kings of rock.  Why so low?  I just don’t listen to it very much.  Also, it could probably stand to be a bit shorter.  If you disagree, make your own list.

Arcade Fire "Ready to Start"

16.  A Sunny Day in Glasgow Autumn, Again

More than a great name, A Sunny Day in Glasgow continue to put out strong neo-shoegaze albums.  As a genre, shoegaze tends to slide into My Bloody Valentine worship.  At it’s most generic, 40 minutes with a shoegaze album mostly makes me want to reach for Loveless or Slowdive.  A Sunny Day in Glasgow certainly follows in the pattern of Loveless:  it’s three minute pop songs layered with layer upon layer upon layers of guitars, sequenced to sound like a monolithic whole.  The key, as far as I can tell, is the “three minute pop song” core.  There has to be something to build on.  More often than not, Autumn, Again succeeds.  Need proof: check out the catchy as I’ll get out “Drink Drank Drunk”.

You can download the album for free here.

For albums 25-21, visit here.

Top 25 Albums of 2010: 25-21

25.  Best Coast Crazy for You 

24. Tender Trap Dansette Dansette

Tender Trap’s Amelia Fletcher is an indie pop icon.  It’s been 24 years since she first recorded with the seminal Talulah Gosh.  Since then she’s only been the main player in iconic bands such as Heavenly, Marine Research, and now Tender Trap.  By any stretch of the imagination this has been a great run.  Most impressive is that 24 years later she’s still making exciting and subversive fuzzed out sonic blasts of sing-along fun.  On this album, "Girls with Guns" and "Do You Wanna Boyfriend?" are some of the catchiest songs you'll hear this year.

If Amelia Fletcher is the icon, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino is the bratty newcomer.  Although she often gets lumped with the new (and probably already gone) niche genre chillwave, I think Best Coast has much more in common with the indie and noise pop bands like Tender Trap.  Sure, she’s from California.  Sure, she has stupid lyrics about boys, cats, drugs, and general slackerdom.  But, really this is a pop album that’s cranked up the distortion. Each song is a two minute ball of fury.

Best Coast "When I'm with You"


Tender Trap "Do You Want a Boyfriend"



23. Sufjan Stevens Age of Adz
22. Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People

Why so low you ask? Perhaps I’m annoyed with Sufjan Stevens’ success? Perhaps I don’t get what he’s doing here? Perhaps I’m a fan who wishes he would stick to what he was doing before? Or perhaps I simply don’t like the deconstructed cacophony of noise that these two albums represent. Don’t get me wrong, Stevens is an immensely talented man. In most regards these are a triumph. They’re risky. They push boundaries. They challenge how one listens to music. There is so much go on, it's impossible to get bored with them. I also find them to be an indulgent (not the first time this accusation has been thrown at Stevens) puddle of colliding noises. There is so much going on that it’s hard to find the melodic core that has been totally deconstructed. That being said, there is something going on here and it’s likely that five years from now I’ll revisit this list and wish I had these much higher.

21. Jenny and Johnny I’m Having Fun Now

I’ve never understood the Jenny Lewis backlash. Sure, no one likes to hear a former child actress and current music star sing about how bad life is. Chances are, we’ve got it worse Jenny. Still, I think Jenny Lewis occupies that place where people secretly enjoy her albums but will never give them too much critical acclaim. Jenny Lewis plays to her strengths. She’s got a fine, if not exceptional voice that she keeps in range. And she’s got a razor sharp wit that’s fine at tossing acerbic barbs. Her one-off album, I’m Having Now Now, is a collaboration with boyfriend Jonathan Rice and is true to its title. It’s a brief barnstormer of an album that has tints of Americana and even the Byrds. Despite its politically charged tones, it’s a joyful bouncing record that’s, well, fun.

Patience with God

What if atheism is not a disease that needs eradicated?  What if it isn’t an enemy that needs vanquished?  What if atheism isn’t the opponent of faith?  What if atheism lays on the same continuum of faith?  What if it is the atheist—the vocal, passionate, and suffering atheist—who stands in solidarity with the kenotic Christ?  What if it is the atheist who best understands the derelict cries of the godforsaken Christ of Golgotha?

In his new book Patience with God, Thomas Halík argues that the atheist is blessed in his solidarity with Christ.  Rather than crushing him with fine crafted arguments in favor of God’s existence, the atheist stands in the same pilgrimage of faith.  She simply needs more patience with the periods of God’s hiddenness.  Instead of an enemy of faith, he is the prophetic voice of protest against a world gone mad, a God who is absent, and a world of violence and shame.  She gives voice to the secret doubts of the faithful soul.  Rather than eradicate the disease that is atheism, the person of faith, the person of the Church, is obligated to stand in solidarity with the sufferings of the impatient atheist.  It is in this moment of solidarity that the faithful approach God’s own kenotic (self-emptying; see Phil. 2) activity.

I for one have found the atheistic/theistic debates tiring.  From a purely rationalistic/apologetic standpoint I haven’t found either position particularly fruitful, helpful, or even overly convincing.  At the end of the day, both the atheist and theist have his or her reason for believing what they do.  While not airtight, most arguments have their plausibility, internal consistency, and external weaknesses.  While this language is pushing the case a bit, as a Christian most indebted to Barth (and I’d say the overall testimony of Scripture) I find many apologetic arguments abhorrent.  Arguments for God’s existence cannot be a preamble to faith.  The testimony of the Bible is one where the existence of God is taken for granted.  God’s existence can be assumed because God was not silent and has revealed himself first in Israel and definitively in Jesus Christ.  The question in the pages of the Bible is not, “is there?” but “what kind?” of God might we know.  In fact, following a thread of Zizek, I might add that the monotheist who takes the atheist as a serious rival is actually a polytheist.  Taking the god of atheism too seriously posits and creates the existence of another god that stands next to and in opposition to the God of Scriptures.  But I digress.

Thomas Halík is a Polish Roman Catholic Priest.  Secretly ordained during a communist regime, he has spent the years following the velvet revolution coming to grips with what it means to live and serve openly as a man of faith.  Specifically this means living on the edge of the post-atheist, post-communist east and the post-Christian west.  As a Catholic, Halík takes his cues from popes past and present, Vatican II, theologians such as Karl Rahner and Luther, authors like Doestesky, and philosophers like Kierkegaard, Nietzche (yes, you read that correctly) and Simone Veil.  Most significantly, Halík draws deeply from the wells of a little known mystic saint:  St. Thèrése.

St. Thèrése de Lisieux was a 19^th century monastic who is perhaps best known for her deep anguish and spiritual conflicts near the end of the life.  She felt Christ slowly departed from here leaving in a desolate place “where no sun shines any longer.”  Rather than rebel against the God that left her, she resolved “to accept even the strangest thoughts” out of love for God.  God’s absence became a means for her to mark her solidarity with both Christ’s godforsaken cries on the cross and to mark her solidarity with unbelievers.

This, I believe, has great value as we grow and evolve in our faith.  It is practically common knowledge that at some point in our life, our faith grows cold.  The excitement and exuberance of young faith simply dies.  For many, clinging to the embers of a love grown cold isn’t enough.  And we grow angry, disillusioned.  “The church has failed me.”  “God has failed me.”  But what if we perceive this as an opportunity?  What if we mimic the patterns of Jesus and name our godforsakeness?  What if we follow the pattern of St. Thèrése and view this as an opportunity to identify with those who have no faith?

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the subtitle of the book: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing in Us.  At the end of the day, this fine volume is a prolonged reflection on the Jesus and Zacchaeus story found in Luke.  While longer and more detailed than Henri Nouwen’s seminal Return of the Prodigal, Halík attempts many of the same things.  Job one is to see the potential Zacchaeuses around us.  A Zacchaeus is a person on the margins.  Someone who falls between the cracks.  Someone not easily seen.

This is a book for people on the margins.  This is a book for those who have grown weary with evidence driven apologetics that serve as a preamble to faith.  This is a book for those you who have lost heart with the hand grenades tossed back and forth between the Church and the atheist academics.  This is a book for people who want to find another way of faithful living.  It’s quieter.  But it’s powerful.  It’s a life of water slowing filling in the cracks.  It’s a life of subtle movements and resolute prayer.  I also think it’s the way of the kenotic Christ.