Easter Playlist

 Derri Daughtery & friends 'Beautiful Scandalous Night' Mark Heard 'Lonely Road' Iona 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'

The Choir 'Enough to Love' Newsboys 'God's Not Dead'

Sorry about the ads, can't even escape them at Easter!

10 favourite tracks

One or two chums on Facebook are posting their 10 favourite tracks of all time. It's impossible to pick 10, so at this present moment here are those which come to mind, with a 'subs bench' of honourable mentions. Ask me in a week and it'll probably be a completely different list...

Shriekback – Hand on My Heart

Newsboys – God’s Not Dead

New Order – Plastic

Jean-Michel Jarre – Ethnicolor

The Choir – The Forest

Adam Again – Dig

The Teardrop Explodes – Reward

Steve Taylor – The Finish Line

U2 – Magnificent

Leona Lewis – Run

Subs bench: Evanescence – Everybodys Fool, Matt Redman – For the Cross, Kathy Burton – Great is our God, Keith Duke – You Lord are In This Place, Saint Etienne – Like a Motorway.

Brex You

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need

Teresa May can always be consoled this month by the fact that, back in 2005, Coldplay wrote a song about her. 

The Holy Spirit turns up on Britains Got Talent

"I feel elated, I felt so uplifted I couldn't get it out of me quick enough"
"I just feel on an incredible high, I just wish I could be up there with you clapping and singing"
"There literally no words to describe that feeling that you gave everyone in this room, it is so powerful, everything about you, everything you represent is my idea of heaven."

I've not caught the show yet, so only spotted this on social media a couple of days ago, but as well as the inspired choir, it was the judges responses that really made me sit up.

It's fascinating to hear a group of non-Christian judges trying to describe in their own words an experience of the Holy Spirit. You sense there is a bit more going on here than the standard hyperbole. And boy, what a choir, can't wait to see what they do next time.

Wonderful Life

Sad to hear that Colin Vearncombe, aka Black, has died after a car accident earlier this month. Thankyou for the beautiful music.

Coldplay: A Head Full of... What Exactly?

There are those who believe that looking for deeper meanings in Coldplay lyrics is like looking for a coherent philosophy from David Cameron, or a balanced argument in the Daily Mail. But hey, lets try anyway.

To the seasoned Coldplayer, all the familiar stuff is here on Head Full of Dreams: singalong 'whoa-oh-oh' sections, references to birds, etc. Lyrically it's more autobiographical than ever - it feels like a depressive trying to jolly himself along, with songs called 'Fun' and 'Up and Up', and lyrics about pain and parting. Oddly, at times I was reminded of the Smiths, and their ability to combine the most downbeat lyric with an uplifting tune (e.g. Bigmouth Strikes Again). There's a clear attempt to strike a happier tone than 'Ghost Stories', but Coldplay just don't do happy - their best stuff is mostly based on anguish (Fix You, Low, Trouble, The Scientist, Viva La Vida, Princess of China). Even the rousing title track, Head Full of Dreams, can only sustain upbeat for 45 seconds at a time before unplugging the drum machine and reaching for the handheld lighter. 

Spiritual themes have loomed large in most previous Coldplay offerings, so what do we have here? What to make of this, from the opening track:
Oh I think I landed
Where there are miracles at work
For the thirst and for the hunger
Come the conference of birds

Saying it’s true, it’s not what it seems
Leave your broken windows open
And in the light just streams
And you get a head, a head full of dreams
....
Into life I’ve just been spoken
With a head full, a head full of dreams

Is this a subtle and multilayered song of hope based on Genesis 1 ('into life I've just been spoken') Elijah (fed and watered by birds), Paul (treasure in jars of clay, walk by faith not by sight). Or none of the above? If this was a U2 song, I'd confidently go for the former answer, but as it's Chris Martin I'm still not so sure.

Or this, from 'Army of One'
Stare into darkness, staring at doom
You make my heart go boom, bo-boom boom
Superhero, a masterpiece
Been innocent but a sinner in me

...I just put my hands up to the sky, feeling like
I've got a rocket, eyes on the prize
I put my hands up to the sky, I'm gonna find
Wherever you are, I'll find that treasure

Again, is this a meditation on mortality and eternity, informed by Jesus (where your treasure is there is your heart), Paul (fixing our eyes on Jesus), and an appreciation of humanity as a fallen masterpiece, or is Martin just using transcendent language for effect (see links below), as he does elsewhere on HFOD?

In the bonus track, 'Miracles'
From up above I heard 
The angels sing to me these words
And sometimes in your eyes 
I see the beauty in the world

Oh, now I'm floating so high
I blossom and die
Send your storm and your lightning to strike
Me between the eyes

Believe in miracles

Because it's not clear who this is addressed to (God, or a lover), it's not clear what it's saying. Maybe that's deliberate. Pop lyrics are peppered with references to angels and heaven that aren't anything to do with real angels and real heaven, in post-Christian culture our spiritual language floats free of the original moorings. 'Believe' can mean everything on the lips of Jesus, and nothing on the lips of a marketing campaign. 

The overriding thread running through the CD, if there is one, is that life is to be lived to the full, with thankfulness, and that even pain and suffering can be redeemed 

under this pressure, under this weight

we are diamonds taking shape

And if we've only got this life
In this adventure, oh, then I

Want to share it with you (Adventure of a Lifetime)


This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival

A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor

Welcome and entertain them all!
Be grateful for whoever comes

Because each has been sent as a guide (Kaleidoscope, based on a poem by the Sufi mystic Rumi)

And you can say what is, or fight for it
Close your mind or take a risk
You can say it’s mine and clench your fist
Or see each sunrise as a gift (Up and Up)

and if there are things to be thankful for, then....

And I asked

Can the birds in poetry chime?

Can there be breaks in the chaos sometimes?

Oh thanks God, must have heard when I prayed

Cause now I always want to feel this way

Amazing day,

Meister Eckhart, a 13th century monk, is reported to have said 'if the only prayer you ever say is 'thankyou', that would be enough'. So maybe Coldplay aren't too far off the mark. 

For previous Coldplay posts
Viva La Vida
Prospekts March
Mylo Xyloto
Ghost Stories
Atlas

Acapella Sing-Off: 'Mary Did You Know?'

Mary did you know that one day lots of acapella songs would be sung about you?

Peter Hollens v Pentatonix.

Chrissie Hynde nails it

"would you say young women should take more responsibility?"

"well I think everyone should, men should too. I don't think sexual assault is a gender issue as such, it's very much, it's all around us now. It's provoked by this pornography culture, it's provoked by pop stars who call themselves feminists but they're actually... maybe they're feminists on behalf of prostitutes, but they're not feminists on behalf of music if they're selling their music by bumping and grinding and wearing their underwear on videos. That's a kind of feminism - you're a sex worker, that's what you are...that's provocative in a way that's nothing to do with music. Captain Beefheart wasn't making videos like that, and I would say that those women are responsible for a great deal of damage."

from an interview on Radio 4. 

In the sexualisation of young people, Hynde is right, pop culture has a lot to answer for. Madonna, Britney, Jessie J, Nicky Minaj, yes we're looking at you. Though to be honest we'd rather not have to.

“A study of 458 young adolescents showed that while girls were less accepting of sexual harassment than boys, exposure to music videos reduced their resistance…For both boys and girls, frequent TV viewing and exposure to pornographic material led to greater acceptance of sexual harassment.” (source)

We could do with a new set of names for a start. 'Glamour' model? Porn 'star'? What's glamourous about parading yourself as a piece of meat for men to drool over? 

Desert Island Discs

This post has been sitting on the mental back burner for ages, and it's been impossible to make up my mind on the final lineup. To be honest, I still can't, so here is this weeks top 8. It'll probably change by next week, but for the moment...

Shriekback - Hand on My Heart
My brother 'built' a radio as a teenager, a real mongrel of a thing but it worked, and picked up Radio Luxembourg, Radio Hallam and the late night John Peel show, which I listened to when I was supposed to be sleeping. Peel was where I first heard Shriekbacks 'Lined Up', and when 'Hand on My Heart' just sneaked into the charts and was played in the top 40 rundown, I was straight out to Roulette Records in Sheffield to buy the LP, Jam Science. I ended up with a collection of just about everything Shriekback had ever released, including some (so I thought) extremely cool 12" singles. It felt even cooler that hardly anyone else had ever heard of them.


New Order - Crystal
Looking back, it was an awful gig, Sheffield Uni students union, New Order didn't even come on stage until about 10, by which time the hall was filled with drunken Mancunians. The band weren't in a great mood, but Peter Hook never is. But it wasn't enough to put me off. It's hard to pick a top tune, but this will do.


Newsboys - Breakfast
I'm not a Greenbelt groupie but hearing the Newsboys live there was a major highlight (along with Andy Hawthorne getting everyone doing 'Jumping in the House of God'). 'Christian' music has, by and large, been flaccid and uninspiring, you can't say that about this lot. The lyrics are great too "That day he bought those pine pyjamas/his cheque was good with God"


The Choir - Fine Fun Time
Another Greenbelt revelation, my first ever CD purchase (remember cassettes anyone?) and probably my favourite band. Consistently brilliant over 25 years, atmospheric, mysterious, and if I can't think what else to put on in the car, it's this lot. If you want a flavour, try Circle Slide, probably their best album (20 years old this month). Again, hard to pick a favourite, but this one always puts a spring in my step. Not an official video, just a random set of home movies, but it gets the spirit of the thing:


U2 - Gone
Like most people who converted to U2, I did so round about the Joshua Tree. They probably peaked with the next one, Achtung Baby, and every CD since has been a real mixed bag - but each with 2 or 3 classic tracks. My longlist of U2 songs for the desert island reaches about 20 (Zooropa, Acrobat, Magnificent, Every Breaking Wave, Invisible, Zoo Station, Red Hill Mining Town...), but Gone, from the Pop CD, clinches it. Couldn't find an official video, so here's a live version.


Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium
Best to close your eyes for this, gorgeous, and the only 'classical' piece in here. Run close by the Jan Garbarek/Hilliard Ensemble 'Officium' CD for atmospheric choral music.


Moby - Lift Me Up
I got into Moby about 2 weeks before the rest of the world after hearing Natural Blues. His James Bond theme tune is superb, and so is this.


Jean Michel Jarre - Ethnicolor 1 (especially from 7:45, where it really takes off)
Alongside my more 'normal' early 80s stuff (Madness, The Smiths, Depeche Mode), I had a wad of Jarre and Tangerine Dream, and still put it on in the background if I need some 'wallpaper music' to help me concentrate. Jarre's stuff seemed to get more and more peculiar, this is a long way from the simplicity of Oxygene, and you'll probably hate it....


Honourable mentions:
The Smiths - How Soon is Now?
Kate Bush - Cloudbursting
Depeche Mode - Stripped
Saint Etienne - Like a Motorway
Deacon Blue - Will We Be Lovers
Black - Wonderful Life
Brian Doerkson - Creation Calls
The Teardrop Explodes - Reward
Dire Straits - Industrial Disease

Book: either Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, or The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder.

Luxury item: a cricket bowling machine (and a set of balls and a bat)

Christmas remixed

A couple of great Christmas songs doing the rounds at the moment, enjoy



GRYMG - Beat Convention from Beat Convention on Vimeo.

How to Busk Properly

Bath Abbey has been having problems with unruly buskers, whose amplified warblings are drowning out worship services. Busking is a major part of Bath city centre life, and the Abbey has a good working relationship with most of the regulars. It's a different story, when they use battery-powered amps outside the doors whilst a funeral service is going on inside.

Here is a better way to busk. Ht Banksyboy. And not an amp in sight.

Token Scot Day

who's on their way from misery to happiness today?
"And I would cast 500 votes
and I would cast 500 more...

In the spirit of new Westminster band David Cameron and the Flying Visits, Opinionated Vicar brings you Token Scot Day, a once in a century chance to make Scottish people feel like they belong to the rest of the UK by playing the Proclaimers and cracking jokes about haggis. Normal service resumes tomorrow.

As a nod to the fact that I'm ethnically 1/8 Scottish, you get 2 Scots for the price of 1 in the video.

(For a brief moment, I did moot the idea of playing 'Lets Get Married' by the Proclaimers on our wedding day. It was only a brief moment.)

Oh yes

Beyonce 'where you lead me Lord, I will go'

I don't know what was more of a surprise, Beyonce in a Gospel song alongside fellow Destinys Child singers Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, or the fact that she's almost dressed modestly. I must admit I don't quite get the US music scene (and don't follow it that closely), with artists publicly tweeting their Christian faith one week then doing something daft a week later.

But anyway, good uplifting song for a Monday, and nice to watch a pop video that I don't have to shield my children from.

Next Years Eurovision Winner

The Wurzels for Eurovision. It's the only strategy that makes any sense.

Coldplay - holy Ghost Stories?

As a gift to us armchair analysts, Coldplay have made the lyrics to their new release, Ghost Stories, available a few weeks in advance of the tracks themselves. I've previously had a go at deciphering Chris Martins coded messages, given his ongoing interest in things spiritual.

The lyrics by and large reflect the artwork: a pair of wings in the shape of a broken heart. Several of the songs are about lost love (Anothers Arms, Ink, True Love), and Martin returns to his beloved sky/birds/flight imagery which Coldplay fans will be used to by now.

Spiritually, I wasn't sure what to expect after Coldplays involvement in the neopagan Paralympic closing ceremony. A couple of songs jump out -

Midnight
"In the darkness before the dawn
in the swirling of the storm
when I'm rolling with the punches and hope is gone
leave a light, a light on.

Millions of miles from home
in the swirling swimming on
when I'm rolling with the thunder
but bleed from thorns
leave a light, a light on. 
leave a light, a light on."

This was the first track released from the new album, to a mixture of excitement and dismay. It's certainly a musical departure for them. The more I look at the lyrics, the more I think of Gesthemane. This could be just about being lost, suffering and lonely, or it could be about 1 person in particular taking all that on himself on our behalf.

I've been listening to The Choirs 'Shadow Weaver' a lot recently, they have lots of songs about finding God in suffering, and here's another one, perhaps:

A Sky Full of Stars
Cause you're a Sky, cause you're a Sky full of Stars
I'm gonna give you my heart
You're a Sky, a Sky full of Stars
cause you light up the path
And I don't care, go on and tear me apart ('yet not my will, but your will be done')
I don't care if you do
Cause in a Sky, cause in a Sky full of Stars, I think I saw you...

...Cause you're a Sky, you're a Sky full of Stars
Such a Heavenly View
You're such a Heavenly View

now it might be that, as on Mylo Xyloto, the words are used for feel/impact rather than meaning, and this is just another step on the descent into vagueness. Or maybe it's trying to find a way of talking about God that doesn't trip people up with the G-word. Why all those capital letters? It's the sort of song a Christian should be singing to God, and probably more real than a lot of our worship songs.

Finally, the closing track O (fly on), takes us up with the birds again:
And I always
look up to the Sky (note the capital letter)
Pray before the Dawn. (or does he just capitalise all the nouns?)

and combines this with a sense of being lost, and of yearning for better things.

Maybe it shouldn't seem so odd that a rich, succesful and famous band should sing so much about the intersection of pain and prayer, as they do here, and in last years release Atlas. None of us are immune. God's there in it if you look hard enough and don't give up, and perhaps he's somewhere in these lyrics too.

Martin has spoken about what the lyrics express, and speaks both about brokenness and love. It's interesting to note that he's in regular touch with Bono, who seems to become more and more overt about his faith as time goes on. Martin talks about 'trusting the universe' - I don't know if that's code, or whether it just reflects the language of many people who have a spiritual sense but don't connect it with the God who put it there in the first place.

Previous reviews
Mylo Xyloto
Prospekts March
Viva La Vida

Coldplay vs U2

Behemoth vs Leviathan: both have singles out in anticipation of full albums later in the year. Its fair to say that Coldplays offering has caused more surprises



Coplday fans are used to hearing 1-2 minute bursts of this sort of stuff before the real song starts, or as interludes between the main tracks (several examples on Mylo Xyloto), not extended to 5 minutes of health spa backing music released as a single. It could have done with the lyrics on screen too, as they helpfully did with Atlas, which was great. No doubt it will grow on me, and fair play to them for taking a risk - Leviathan does frolic after all.

(update: we have official lyrics now.)

U2 have stuck a bit closer to form, and if Coldplay are giving up on the stadium singalong songs (to be fair, it was mostly going 'oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh' but at least the lyrics were easy to pick up) then Bono is ready to step up. He's even borrowed Chris Martins dangly lamp from Fix You and stuck a microphone on it:


this one is really growing on me, it's not a radical departure, but when you're as good as U2 you don't need one.

Gary Barlow Does God: "I pray a lot"

Whatever you think of Gary Barlow and his music, the lyrics of 'God' on his latest CD are intriguing, to say the least:

Tell me
If you found God and he gave you hope
Would you tell the world or save your soul?
If you found God, would you take Him home
Would you open the curtains or keep them closed?
If you found God, if you found God
Would it be your secret?
If you found God, if you found God
Would it be your secret?

Could anyone really be that selfish?
Could anyone really be that cruel?
To keep the king of heaven and earth right next to you

Not sure what faith Barlow has or hasn't got, but I'm 100% with him on the challenge here, God doesn't bless us so we can keep it to ourselves, it's so that others can be blessed. 

Update: just found an interview with Barlow in the Mirror with this snippet:

With another track called God and references to souls, heaven and guardian angels, it is not only Gary’s most introspective work but also his most ambitious to date.

Questioning the whole concept of faith and God, he explains: “I do think about religion loads. It seems like quite an old-fashioned thing now but I’ve started to consider what goes on out there. You do as you get older.

“When big things happen in your life and you lose people you love, you do consider it, definitely.

“I do pray, I pray a lot... usually on take-off because I’m scared of flying. I honestly do. I put my hands together and say, ‘Please God, keep us safe’.

“I don’t know if there is a God but I do say prayers, and I say prayers for people. There are no answers on this record but there are considerations and questions of the whole idea around it.”

Update 2: I'm expecting a royalty fee from the Bishop of Taunton. 

Update 3: and here's Barlow talking about forgiveness, pretty remarkable. 

Update 4: looks like he'll have to pay a lot as well as pray a lot.

Incarnational Homespun Blues

potential winner for this years Nativity Factor?



here's the original, in case you're wondering what the above is all about



and this wouldn't be complete without Weird Al Yankovic's inspired palindrome parody version


Weird Al Yankovic: Bob from ding dong on Vimeo.

Petition: Put Age Ratings on Music Videos

With a couple of kids at primary school, I'm fairly picky about which channels get blocked on our TV. Anything showing music videos is off air, along with the shopping channels and pornography. I've just signed this petition, which calls for age ratings to be applied to music videos whether sold in shops or online, something which is long overdue. Please consider signing it too.

Here's some of the wording, addressed to the Prime Minister:

I know that you care deeply about the sexualisation of women and girls in the media and are taking action to tackle this. Your commitment to introducing age-ratings for music videos sold in shops is very welcome. For consistency, I would urge you to extend age-ratings to music videos viewed online also, as recommended by a Government commissioned review, because most people now watch and share videos this way.

This is not about censorship as music videos shown on TV, video games, films and ads are all regulated or have age-ratings so that there is guidance on sexually explicit images, and many harmful images are removed altogether. This same principle should apply to music videos online, linked to filters, so that there is a trusted guide about content. Many online platforms including iTunes and Netflix already carry BBFC age-ratings and content advice.

I hope that you will listen to the voices of young women and make this change so that we can enjoy music videos without being bombarded by these harmful images.