Sunday CD Project

So, my feet have barely touched the ground over the last few days, so finding time to write this review has been a challenge. As such it will be concise.

J Mascis - Several Shades Of Why

J was the frontman of indie band Dinosaur Jr. a few years back, and also headed up J Mascis And The Fog (whom I thoroughly recommend - they're on Spotify so there's no excuse). He's been doing some more folky solo stuff for a while as well, but this is his first full-length album of solo material. I got one song, Is It Done?, for free from Pitchfork (online music magazine - read it, it makes NME look like all kinds of lame) and was vaguely interested, so bought the album when it came out a week or three ago.

Genuinely, one of the most lovely, chilled-out-but-not-boring albums I've heard in a while. There's a weird but rather cheerful video as well, which I will embed below.

Definitely worth a listen I think.

Julez's enjoyment rating of: 4/5

j.r.

I've been asked about prayer a few times recently. Obviously there are lots of ins and outs to it, and many a good book have been written on the subject (Pete Greig's God On Mute is a masterpiece in my opinion), but for a simple explanation, I think this is rather lovely:

j.r.

Clarity

I've been going to church as long as I can remember. I use 'church' as a collective and generic term encompassing all manner of congregations, from faux-High Anglican in Bishop's Waltham as I was growing up, to a Baptist fellowship in New Delhi; from eating doughnuts and playing Weezer covers in a smelly school gym in Fair Oak, to sitting in a converted bowls hut in Guildford discussing apologetics (and/or cinema).

The one thing I've noticed, though, is that in all Western Church services (encompassing all the above and many more besides), there is almost always someone preaching/teaching/guiding the discussion and sharing their ideas. What I've also noticed, especially after attending the less sit-and-listen type meetings, is that quite often we over-complicate stuff.

Earlier I was reading Romans 7, which is all about sin, why sin is so attractive, and why we struggle to stick to God's laws. I'm not going to lie, I think it's a flipping hard passage to get a grip on, and I struggled to get my head around what Paul is saying. More to the point, I've heard a fair few talks over the years on this same issue, but none of them have summed up a reason in even a short paragraph, let alone a single sentence. This is where we come back to my earlier comment about over-complicating things.

At the end of that passage, however, Paul/God does a pretty good job (I think) of explaining it, in this simple wording:

". . . I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin."
– Romans 7:25b

For me, that one verse has summed up a concept that I have struggled and wrestled with for most (if not all) of my Christian life.

I think it goes to show that no matter how good preachers/church leaders are (and please don't get me wrong, I think teaching is a valid and necessary part of church life), it is always always ALWAYS worth looking through God's Word before trying to explain a concept through our own power.

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

This week, due to popular demand (from @lucytrew), I will be starting to do marks out of five for albums. This will be highly unscientific, as I'm not really a fan of grading art, but we'll see how it goes.

Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz

This one took a couple of weeks to be delivered, so I actually forgot it was coming. The excitement I felt when I opened the parcel and pulled this out was sadly, though, quickly overtaken by mild confusion and disappointment.

All of Sufjan's earlier material, some of which I have previously reviewed is a blend of prog and folk in almost equal measure, and that sound is what defines Sufjan as an artist. This album, however, is electronic. Sometimes start to use little electronic sounds as they can afford cool hardware that they couldn't before; Sufjan hasn't done that. The vocals are similar to previous material (but with layers of added effects), and there's still a fair amount of brass, strings and woodwind, but nearly all that would have been piano, guitar or drums in previous albums has been replaced by synths. Lots and lots of synths.

The first of two redeeming songs (for me) were the penultimate track I Want To Be Well, which is slightly tarnished by uncharacteristic F-word repeated multiple times. The second is the closing track, Impossible Soul, a progressive 25-minute wig-out. Although in keeping with the electronic stuff, the parts of this song (songs within songs, if you will) were considerably better than in the rest of the album, and I liked it. Unfortunately, this track is also tarnished somewhat, this time by a Jason Derulo-esque autotuned-beyond-belief section.

I imagine there was an element of tongue-in-cheek-ness to Sufjan doing what sounds like a remix album of songs we'd never heard, but I can't help thinking it was a step a little two far outside the box. If you want some Sufjan Stevens to listen to, get Illinoise or Michigan or Seven Swans. Or feel free to totally ignore me, I'm not an authority on anything.

My rating: 2.8/5 (sorry Sufjan)

j.r.

Sunday CD Project 13/03/11

Sorry about last week. The postal service at uni is rubbish. This is last week's CD. This week's hasn't arrived yet, so it will be next week's. Anyway, here we go:

Imogen Heap - iMEGAPHONE

This is the Imogen Heap album no-one's heard about. It's not only before 2005's Goodnight And Go, but is actually the precursor to the critically acclaimed 2002 Frou Frou album Details. iMEGAPHONE isn't the same Imogen Heap we know now: it's still clearly her voice, albeit a less-refined younger version, but the music itself is far more exposed than her later albums, especially Ellipse. I don't mean this in a bad way, though! This openness gives the album a dark, moody, raw edge to her pop sound, as if Imogen wasn't sure wasn't sure which direction to take the record.

As a 20-year-old writer, a lack of definite direction is understandable, and although it leads to to some tracks perhaps not fitting in with their neighbours, it doesn't make any of the tracks less good, and leads to some pretty angsty lyrics. A prime example of this is in 'Oh Me, Oh My' when she screams "Oh God, are you out there?!" at the top of her lungs, before contrasting it (in true Imogen Heap fashion) with the lyrics ". . . if so, where are you hiding? I'm having trouble finding you." Nice. There's a cool gospelly track called 'Candlelight' later on as well, which is probably my favourite on the album.

There you are then. If you're wanting Immy c.2008, stick with Ellipse, but if you want to hear some new-old stuff, check iMEGAPHONE out.

j.r.

p.s. Also, hurrah! for anagrammatic album titles!

What a way to plant a church.

I'm reading Pete Greig's Red Moon Rising at the moment. I'm finding it really hard to find time to actually get to it in amongst all my uni stuff, but every single time I do, there is something that challenges me. Today it was the story of a 22-year-old Kenyan guy who had grown up as a street kid who came to know Jesus, and decided to plant a church. This is how he did it:

He gathered a dozen friend in a room and they prayed non-stop for forty days. The two who didn't have jobs had to cover most of the night shifts by themselves, as well as ferrying the others to their prayer slots in a beaten-up old car. But they did it. They just assumed that this was the way you should plant a church.

They just assumed that this was the way you should plant a church. That blows my mind. All the prayer meetings I've ever been to have been planned out, and tried and tested, and don't get me wrong, they've been fantastic. But the thought that this sort of prayer wasn't some radical idea, but simply the logical 'only way of doing it' is just mind-boggling.

I'll leave you with that.

j.r.

Eyes wide open

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw hills full

of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

- 2 Kings 6:16-17, NIV (emphasis added by me)

I always forget about that aspect of God's glory. The huge, powerful, awesome aspect that stays hidden from sight 99% of the time.

He is in control.