I am mistaken in my opinion.
Jon tried to tell me the whole point of the album, but it was too soon for me to hear. I wasn't ready to listen. My idea of what Relient K is supposed to be was not being filled. My expectations weren't being met and how dare they deviate from my scheme of what a "secretly Christian" band should be.
Hmmm. Let me expand on that. In my mind, there are two kinds of Christian bands: openly Christian and secretly Christian. Openly Christian bands are supposed to produce nice worship music for all the Christian radio stations to blare like they actually mean it. Words like "glory," "fire," and "reign" are supposed to be thrown around frequently in the lyrics.
Secretly Christian bands (like Relient K) have a special place in my heart. They are supposed to write about whatever they want, as long as the undertones are always Christian. They're supposed to trick non-Christians into listening to their stuff because it's "cool" so that listeners somehow magically discover Jesus through the subtlety. You know, for example, This may sound like a love song to you, but really it's about our love for Jesus. Gotcha!
In fact, when Jon told me what he had read in a positive review, I said, "That's not how people get reached." I'm an idiot.
To make myself look really hypocritical, I'll have you know that when many RK fans were critiquing the album for its pop sound (the band having been historically more of a rock band), I thought they were just being so dumb for their closed-minded opinion. The musicality of the album is fantastic. The sound is great.
It's been years and several albums since Relient K has stuck to that old school rock sound they once had. People in their early- to mid-twenties love RK because they listened to them in middle school and going to concerts is like reliving the good ol' days. But when they hear newer (much improved) music by them, they say it's just not the same.
I totally judge(d) people for this. Relient K's sound gets better and more refined with each album. And they know how to mix things up. So people who think they need to stay forever the same are dumb, obviously.
But, like I said in my post in September, the lyrics were shallow and empty and stupid and didn't sound Christian to me, so of course I highly disapproved. Pardon me while I throw up.
Then I finally accidentally found Stephen Shutter's review (which had Jon semi-quoted to me) and I saw the Collapsible Lung in a new light. I highly recommend you read review this for the full effect of what I am about to say.
Here's why I was wrong:
First of all, the shallowness was not an accident or a sign that Matt Thiessen had reached moral ruin and was no longer worthy of my listening ears. They did it on purpose. To actually make a point. Realizing this was the difference between me disgustedly hearing, Look at me! I'm sinning! Wheeeee! and compassionately hearing, I'm a sinner. Look at my sin. I'm pathetic.
As Mr. Shutters says in his review, the album tells a continuation of the story of Matt Thiessen's fiancé leaving him and how he dealt with the heartbreak and the inability to find as much meaning in his life. As depicted in Collapsible Lung, he turned to things other than God and finally realized that those things got him nowhere; it was ultimately God who was his only source of joy and meaning.
Yeah, I failed to pick up on that. I have never been one to listen to an album as a whole. I never cared to try and nail down the story laced through the songs. And I certainly never cared too much about the lives or even the names of the artists themselves. But does that mean they're not living their lives? That they're just supposed to be little worship machines (because that's glorifying to God)? And does that mean that they aren't struggling with things on a daily basis that compulsively end up reflected in the lyrics?
Relient K did something artful. Read Mr. Shutter's review to know what that was. I fully support his analysis. Just because I was too dense to pick up on it doesn't mean it wasn't beautiful, creative, or glorifying to God.
Besides, who am I to put Relient K, of all bands, into a box? Shame on me.
They've gotten a lot of crap for their album from many of their fans. But I need to finally acknowledge that as artists, they had every right to write and produce what they did, whether I like it or not. They did it for a reason.
The day this finally hit me felt like a few weeks ago when I finally reconciled my friendship with Max. Basically, our friendship had been put on hold for a time while I sorted through things, but my need for that withholding passed long before I dared to say "time in." When I finally did, I felt slightly ashamed, but mostly relieved that we could be friends again. After we finally had an "it's all okay now" conversation, we hugged.
Re-listening to Collapsible Lung with fresh ears felt like that hard conversation. Listening to the album again felt like the long-awaited hug.
Relient K... will you be my friend again?
Me and Matt Thiessen, May 2013
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment