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6th
July
2006
Jesus Creed » Zealotry 1
As always, Scot McKnight keeps coming out with thought provoking and on-the-money blog pieces. His latest piece weighs into the evangelical vs “liberal” divide with some fairly scathing words concerning evangelicals “faithfulness to the Bible.” I appreciated what he had to say, and the comments thus far have been very fruitful as well, particularly on the issue of Christians and alcohol. Will be interesting to see where Scot goes with this series.
Categories : Blogs, Christianity |
6th
July
2006
Last week I got the latest album from The Streets, an English garage hip-hop outfit fronted by Mike Skinner. The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living follows in the tradition of his two previous albums, with engaging music and lyrics, often of a narrative nature. In this album Skinner explores some of the difficulties that come with success, among other things. Some of the standout tracks include “All Goes Out the Window” which discusses honesty and fidelity in relationships, “Can’t Con an Honest John” which is an hilarious step-by step method of how to pull a scam, “Hotel Expressionism” looking at the ‘art’ of trashing hotel rooms, and “Two nations” which examines the complicated relationship between the Brits and the Yanks, including the classic line :
“I’m proud we gave you people like John Lennon…even though you shot him as well”
Perhaps the standout track on the album is “Never went to church” which is a heartfelt expression of Skinner’s feelings of insecurity and his search for faith after the death of his father. Apparently this track has been receiving a bit of play in churches in the UK – kudos to them for having the courage to appropriate some fairly cutting edge culture (especially when the language and ‘adult themes’ of some of The Streets’ other tracks would be most unwelcome in most church environments.)
Overall this is another enjoyable listen from The Streets, though it lacks the captivatingly cohesive narrative of A Grand Don’t Come for Free, which I still regard as being somewhat of a classic (see my review here.) But overall a solid effort. The Streets’ material is still original, and still unlike much else popular music going around today.
Categories : music |
