When I was in college, my favorite singer-songwriter was a guy named Rich Mullins. If you aren’t a member of Gen X or a millennial, or if you didn’t grow up in the evangelical church, that name probably won’t ring any bells. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, Mullins composed staples of contemporary worship music like “Awesome God,”Continue reading “Derek Webb’s “Survival Songs” is a Pride-Themed Masterpiece for Our Time”
Category Archives: Music Review
What I’ve Been Listening to This Summer: 7 Album Reviews
Do you still listen to albums? In this era of iTunes and YouTube and Spotify, records have lost some of the prominence that they once enjoyed. Songs are usually appreciated in isolation, randomly shuffled, suggested by algorithms, or compiled into playlists with tunes by a variety of artists. These new listening styles have their perks.Continue reading “What I’ve Been Listening to This Summer: 7 Album Reviews”
To Love the World Again: A Literary Analysis of Only God Was Above Us
“Only God was above us!” Those words, which are visible on a newspaper headline adorning the cover of Vampire Weekend’s fifth album, were spoken by a survivor of one of the strangest disasters in aviation history.1 On April 28, 1988, the passengers of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 watched in horror as their airplane’s ceiling wasContinue reading “To Love the World Again: A Literary Analysis of Only God Was Above Us“
Sounds of Springtime: A Literary Analysis of Father of the Bride
I didn’t want it to be a cool photograph of the earth in space; I wanted it to have a little bit of that tension of being Mother Nature, the planet we live on, but also something border-line uncomfortable with the raw digital whiteness surrounding it. This was how Ezra Koenig described the cover ofContinue reading “Sounds of Springtime: A Literary Analysis of Father of the Bride“
Dark Night of the Soul: A Literary Analysis of Modern Vampires of the City
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, there’s a scene where two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha, are discussing religion in a tavern. Ivan is a skeptic, and he objects to God’s goodness on account of the world’s suffering. According to Ivan, the future “harmony” that believers long for, where all sorrows will be consoled andContinue reading “Dark Night of the Soul: A Literary Analysis of Modern Vampires of the City“
Encountering Opposition: A Literary Analysis of Contra
When we are young, our relationship to the world can aptly be described as a kind of infatuation. Like a kid with a crush, we’re carried away by the thrill of discovery, convinced that the object of our love can do no wrong. Yet as we grow older, we all experience a “loss of innocence”Continue reading “Encountering Opposition: A Literary Analysis of Contra“
Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend
Take a moment and think back to your childhood, adolescence, and/or young adulthood. How did life look from those perspectives? Everyone’s upbringing is unique, and some people are forced to grow up much too fast. However, for many of us, these years were characterized by the thrill of discovery. There was eagerness to map theContinue reading “Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend“
Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series
Nine months ago, when my wife and I packed our belongings and moved from West Michigan to Chicagoland, I did something I’d never done before: Alone in the U-Haul, I listened to four albums in a row by the same band, start to finish. Typically, when I’m on the road, I like to mix thingsContinue reading “Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series”
Light, Love, and Lyricism: A Review of Josh Ritter’s “Spectral Lines”
On Spectral Lines, a cartographer of the strange and fantastical traverses more familiar territory, patiently seeking glimmers of magic in the mundane. There are few people who could use the words “brindled” and “bergamot” in a song and get away with it. Josh Ritter is one of them. The Idaho native has always been aContinue reading “Light, Love, and Lyricism: A Review of Josh Ritter’s “Spectral Lines””
Dreaming in the Depths: Ella Mine and the Problem of Overwhelming Suffering
Have you ever been blindsided by something that left you feeling completely helpless? On a windy afternoon in the autumn of 2017, I was caught off guard by a huge wave while bodysurfing in the Indian Ocean. I’d been catching waves with a friend for a long time that day and was having a blast.Continue reading “Dreaming in the Depths: Ella Mine and the Problem of Overwhelming Suffering”
Words for Wayfarers 