Johari Window
I “comandeered” this off of Amy’s blog, I’m just kind of curious about it.
I “comandeered” this off of Amy’s blog, I’m just kind of curious about it.
It’s been a while since I’ve written an actual blog, I’ve been so wrapped up in podcasting, so I figured I’d actually take the time to write something.
Recently Kutless has been promoting a band called Mainstay on their Myspace. I listened to a couple of tracks off of Mainstay’s album and wound up purchasing the full CD (our only copy) at my store.
To try and classify Mainstay, I’d say they’re a cross between Switchfoot and Kutless, only mellower than either of the two. The album is one of the few recent albums that I felt like I really connected with the message in the album (a problem I’m noticing with a lot of “Christian” bands nowdays is it’s harder and harder to find new bands that actually seem to supply a message).
The first song, “These Pages”, seems to tackle the issue of people twisting Jesus to try and manipulate him to what they want him to be instead of who he is. The chorus goes:
Words that You didn’t say were haunting these pages
Faces You didn’t make were all I was seeing
The way that they painted You wasn’t a picture
of one in control – and I don’t think they know who you are
I’ve encountered many people in my time who try to manipulate others by making Jesus out to be what he isn’t (for instance, I once read about a Rasta who was saying that Jesus “miracles” were done with oil from cannibas, instead of it being that he’s the son of God and was able to preform them).
Another song, “Take Away”, involves remembering that God is our provider and surrendering to God’s will for our life. The imagery in the first verse, in my opinion, is just powerful.
Rid me of the notion that I ever had any rights
Cleanse me of the motives that come in such a clever disguise
Ruin my agenda, holy as it never was
It’s sobering, when you really think about the words, when we think about how “This is my right!” or “That is my right!” and we don’t think about the responsibility that goes with it. It also made me think about the times when I was doing the right thing for the wrong reason, not because it was something that I should’ve been doing but because it made me look better. Then the chorus hits as the reminder that God is the one who gives & takes away.
It’s all from Your hand
and there’s nothing that’s mine
and all that You give
You’re free to take away
The song that I think really spoke to me the most was the title track, “Well Meaning Fiction”. During the first verse, the message of the song hits pretty hard.
Dull the edge so that it’s softer
and it won’t offend their ears
Water down to make it simple
you could sell it anywhere
Wow. Just… Wow. It really says something about the watering down of the Gospel in this day and age. We’ve all seen it, whether in a televangelist’s megacongregation or in a local church setting, chances are you’ve run across at least one pastor in your time who was watering down the message to make it more “user friendly” to a larger audience instead of relying on God to work on their hearts and just being the vessel God uses to take the message. Mainstay finishes off the coda with words that I think really nail it down, too. “In the end we don’t get to answer to ourselves”.
If you’re expecting me to solely rave about the lyrical content, I’m not stopping there. After all, what kind of music review would I be doing if I didn’t actually review the musical portion of it? Like I said before, a cross between switchfoot and kutless, slightly mellower. The song “Take Away” starts off with a gorgeous piano melody. Not an overly heavy CD, this is probably a great album for fans of Kutless, Switchfoot, Sanctus Real, and Coldplay. The sophisticated rock sound is definitely not to be overlooked, while not the same caliber as Kutless or Switchfoot, this band has potential, and I plan to recommend it to every guest who buys any of the above artists. Check it out, or you might miss out on one of the best new bands in 2006 (and this is something I’m saying two months in, which I’ll rarely do with a new band so early in the year).
Transcript to follow…
Here’s the first part of a series I like to call “Andrew’s Random Rants”. IT’s basically where I find a topic that really irritates me and rant about it for about two minutes. You’ll never know what to expect with these rants…
Transcript to follow…
It’s short and sweet, but I wanted to get something up here to get iTunes reading me. Hope you enjoy it!