On ‘The Best Thing About’ Rock
U2 has long been my favorite band. They have been able to innovate and adapt, while consistently remaining true to their roots and maintaining friendships among the band members. Their 2014 album Songs of Innocence, despite the criticism on how it was released through iTunes, was an artistic masterpiece. It captured the grunge, punk feel of their youth even as it showed the maturation of 35 years in their reflection upon that era in Ireland.
In December the band is releasing a new album, Songs of Experience, as a companion to Songs of Innocence. While Innocence focused on their youth during the Troubles, Experience will be shaped by expressions of affection to those closest to the band. They released a single from the album early, “You’re The Best Thing About Me,” which is supposed to be representative of the album’s feel.
And it is awful.
On The Branding and Selling of Christianity
The rise of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) in the late 1960s, and its cultural ascent in the early 1990s, represented a massive capitulation to the broader culture, though not in the ways its initial critics imagined. During the worship wars…
On Religious Liberty and Satanism
The Missouri Supreme Court will be hearing a case on whether the state’s abortion laws violate the religious rights of a woman who is a member of the Satanic Temple. The Satanic Temple is an activist and religious organization started in 2012 that employs Satanic imagery to bring attention to its actions. Similar to the Church of Satan, the Satanic Temple is atheistic and rejects any notion of the supernatural, including the idea of a devil. Its beliefs are very similar to that of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism…
