This time around, no obscure C20th classical music. Instead, I am making a play for possibly the most tumbleweed and lowest rating ever. We have:
A band that no one (except a slight possibility of @tmc ) will have heard of, let alone own anything by.
A band that started out playing Country and Western.
A band led by a bloke called Terry.
And, most likely to bring sub Guilt Machine ratings, a band that is Christian. Yes, in the lead up to Christmas, we have THE GOD SLOT.
But…
This isn’t what you would expect from that. First off, there are no vicars with tambourines or rainbow guitar straps. What is more, it is nowhere near as preachy as the YFC album Wayne put forward.
What there is lyrically are songs that point at all the things you would also see as problems with shiny suited USAtianity. Smug televangelists (Big Warm Sweet Interior Glowing -"He eats a six course dinner and hears the voice of the Spirit, the voice says ‘Well done, my very good and faithful servant’ "), hypocritical leaders (Virgin Falls) and, in the period of Bush Snr’s funeral, people who bomb in the name of peace and claim religious justification (Father Explains, which has a final lyrical twist as effective as any I have heard). The album was written c. 1991, that song was written from the view of an Iraqi family during the first Gulf War. Not exactly yeehaw Trump toting stuff.
Musically, the band (aka Daniel Amos) have gone all over the place while they have been together. The album before, Darn Floor Big Bite, was very much New Waveish, Bibleland is far more scuzzy. The most obvious if not entirely accurate comparison here may be REM around that time.
To my ears, musically it is seriously good. They really can play, there is real quality in the songwriting and musical interplay and ultimately some really good songs.
Spotify here
Youtube here
Anywhere else, dunno. Over to you…
. It is not reggae so from your point of view it is all win.
. You are simply a minor distraction from a life of technicolor fun
<- spew colour almost correct too!
