Category: Music Reviews
All Alone, After God
Lament is difficult to do corporately. The publicity of it tends to belie sincerity, or at least, to undercut it. If not precipitated organically from some horrible regional or global event, lament usually feels most true when expressed by one...
The Politics of “Wicked”
Earlier this summer, it was announced that the upcoming movie adaptation of the 2003 hit Broadway musical Wicked will be released in two parts, beginning in 2024. This is the latest news about a project long awaited, for which fans...
Love in A Pillar of Salt
Noah Gundersen, for as long as I’ve been aware of him, has been my quintessential example of an artist whose art clearly depicts his departure from faith. He shares honestly about his doubts much more than his beliefs. He is...
Kanye the Pious
If you were to read half-a-dozen reviews of Kanye West’s latest album, Donda — and I recommend that you don’t —you would learn chiefly that West is a bad person. He’s a bad person for associating with social undesirables; he’s...
Roger Ebert’s Dying Words
I’ve recently had Clem Snide’s latest album, Forever Just Beyond (2020), on repeat. Snide, the nom de band of Jewish-American songwriter Eef Barzelay, collaborates on the album with Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers to produce an understated, folky contemplation...
J. Cole’s “For Your Eyez Only” Gives Hope for Change Beyond Elections
In my lessons on Christianity and social justice, I always feature clips from J. Cole’s 2017 HBO documentary For Your Eyez Only. The film, directed by Cole and Scott Lazer, features interviews with residents of small black cities throughout the...
Hamilton, Meritocracy, and Patriotism
I held out for as long as I could. My resistance was sustained chiefly by a stubborn contrarianism that resists as many trends as possible, particularly those that can be credibly connected to New York City, Washington, San Francisco, or Los...
Album Review: Over the Rhine, ‘Meet Me at the Edge of the World’
I’ve always loved the section of George Steiner’s Real Presences where he describes the role of art as helping us get through the metaphoric “Saturday” space between the “suffering, aloneness, unutterable waste” of (Good) Friday and the “dream of liberation”...
Live Music
I’m not the first person to suggest that there is something inherently better about live musical performances, and even though we are rapidly sinking into an atomized digital age, I don’t think I’ll be the last: there is enough of...
Worse than Asparagus: Charlie Lehardy on Jazz
Charlie Lehardy thinks jazz is (gasp!) worse than asparagus: Jazz may be worse than asparagus. As a musician, I have great respect for the virtuosity of jazz artists, most of whom are masters of their instruments. I can relate to...