Mixtapemotions

  • “Hello” by Adele, Friday, April 30, 2021

     

    Today’s song needs very little introduction. Most of the time I pick pretty obscure music for my playlists, sometimes even having to add the lyrics or even create the artist’s Genius page. However, 2015’s “Hello” is a song that everyone’s mom and grand-mother knows. Furthermore, Adele is pretty much one of the least controversial figures in pop music, as shown masterfully in an SNL sketch.  “Hello” is definitely meme-worthy. Six years after its release, the emotion of the song has long since felt cliche; however, some days a cliche is really the best thing to describe your feelings.


    IT’S NO SECRET THAT THE BOTH OF US ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. Today, I woke up to the news that my dad had had a mini-stroke and was in the hospital. After a trip to the emergency room, he was discharged and given some instructions to come back to see a specialist and to make some lifestyle changes. This is all happening on the other side of the world, and with the pandemic–air travel being astronomically more expensive and difficult–I feel so helpless. Today’s fright got me thinking about time, more specifically how time changes the ones we love. How it puts a wedge between us. I think about how I came to Korea as what I thought would be no more than a three-year thing. After a very lousy student teaching experience, I wanted to prove to myself that I could teach and that teaching was the calling God had for my life. However, somewhere toward the end of year two, I had started a new relationship and was learning how to be an adult. I also hadn’t made the connections to transition my teaching career stateside, and the finances of that scared me. So I stuck around in Korea. In 2015, I lost my first grandparent. I had made it to my late twenties with four sets of grandparents, but in the summer of 2015, my grandfather died, and I didn’t go to the funeral. Time and money were the excuses. Then in 2018, my mom’s father passed away. Also, I didn’t go to the funeral. 

    I MUST’VE CALLED A THOUSAND TIMES. I’ve had a sheltered life up to this point. I remember going to my great-grandmother’s funeral in 1994. It was the first plane ride I took from Syracuse to Orlando. I didn’t attend the funeral of my great-grandfather in 2004, but I did attend his 100th birthday a few months before. There have been some sad deaths of friends’ parents and church members, but in my immediate circle, I’ve been sheltered. I don’t say that to brag or to tempt fate. On the contrary, I say this with utmost humility. I say it with fear and trembling that when it does come, I will be unable to deal with it because I’ve had so little to build my immunity toward it. And then I think about the time difference between me and the ones that I love. I think of all the friends I’ve let go of over the years. I think about how I’ve constructed a life that’s true to myself half a day in the future from my family and friends. How connected my family is in Upstate New York and how connected my sisters are to my parents. How I’m forging on in this plan with the person I love, but forsaking my family in a land that has built its culture on filial piety. Oh how much of a bad contrast Showbread is with Adele. And how dark my happy-sad playlist for April is.

  • “I Am Horrible at Processing Rejection” by Showbread ft. Whitney DePaoli & Loni Evans, Thursday, April 29, 2021

     

    In 2016 raw rock band was pronounced dead in their final studio album Showbread Is Showdead. The cause of death was detailed in the band’s Labeled episode. The music industry, overcommitment with crowdfunding, and the band’s controversial views throughout the years are all contributing factors to the bands demise. As one of the last unabashed Christian Rock acts, Showbread pressed the genre way beyond the bounds of ‘acceptable’ music for Christian kids and incorporated literary, philosophical, and industrial/metal influences that were typically shunned by the church. Showbread is responsible for starting conversations around Nihilism, anarchy, patriotism, and idolatry, and gave Christian kids a vocabulary to enter those conversations with their references to literature, philosophy, and horror movies. 


    NOBODY KNOWS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. I recently heard a podcast lambasting Skillet’s Alien Youth album. The hosts joke about how Skillet‘s John Cooper listened to Korn and Nine Inch Nails once and decided to copy their sound. To be fair, John Cooper has said on Lead Singer Syndrome that he considers Alien Youth to be one of his least favorite albums. In contrast to Skillet, Showbread’s music has pushed boundaries of the Christian market, from their dark imagery on No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical to their dual records Anorexia/Nervosa, which channeled NIN and Marylin Manson along with authors Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk in order to tell a dark story that culminates in a redemptive theme, to their statement on Religious Nationalism in the music video for “Vehement” which was a decade before its time. Showbread Is Showdead takes a jab at pastor/Reformed Theologian John Piper. Often Showbread’s message is too radical for fans and as CD sales slowed down, this was a death blow to the strange band.

    I’M AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTOMING OUT. My personal history with this band was mixed. On one hand, I was fascinated with the artistic scope that they brought to the scene, but like the John Cooper caricature of Our Pod Is An Awesome Pod (mentioned above), I always avoided the “satanic” music of Manson, Korn, and NIN. Even when I got into heavier music, Showbread’s symbol, an eighth not crossed out (pictured to the left). Seeing that symbol on so many t-shirts at Cornerstone made me fearful about the future of music and question whether or not the band took their musicianship seriously. Was the band committed to a future of musical terrorism, in which melody was traded for distortion? Furthermore, they admitted at Cornerstone 2011 that their gothic persona, makeup, and antics were part of their gimmick to press their Christian agenda. I would have felt more conflicted with that if their agenda was completely in line with what we identify as Christian today. Showbread’s music still packs a punch today, but in my 30s, hard music is only really relevant on bad days. And days like today with work meetings from ungrateful administrators lacking no vision for the future of education makes me through up my hands and say, “Let’s [just] ruin everything” then. Days like this are great for re-exploring the complexities of Anorexia/Nervosa. But we can’t hope for too many days of Showbread.

  • “Island” (Float Away) by The Starting Line, Wednesday, April 28, 2021

     

    In Western North Carolina, we had two modern rock radio stations. From upstate South Carolina there was 93.3 “ The Planet,” an Active Rock radio station that played lots of ‘90s rock and neo-90s rock. They loved grunge and post-grunge. They played Nickelback, Seether, P.O.D., Flyleaf, Puddle of Mudd, and that kind of music. Then there was Charlotte’s 106.5 “The End,” an Alternative rock station. While playing much of the same music, they also featured some newer groups, such as Silversun Pickups, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and the occasional The Almost or Saosin song. The Starting Line was one of those emerging bands that was starting to be picked up on radio. The first single, “Island,” from the band’s third and final (latest) LP, Direction, was a kind of break out for the band to mainstream alternative rock. The band had toured on their two previous albums and built up a fan base thanks to venues like the Vans Warped Tour, but some band members grew tired of touring, while others got involved with other projects.

    WAITING TOO LONG FOR A SHIP TO COME. I wasn’t fond of other Starting Line albums, but the songs on Direction had a lot going on. Whether it was the summery campfire sounding song “Something Left to Give,” the too-old-for-my-youth song “21,” or the tongue-in-cheek “Birds,” Direction was on of my favorite summer of ‘09 albums. “Island” is a great example of layers in alternative rock. Based on what lead singer/bassist Kenny Vasoli calls a “pretty-ugly chord,” the song builds with some interesting drumming and with some Calypso-sounding elements. The song talks of the urge to “sail away” with a loved one and leave their old lives behind. The music video finds the band shipwrecked on an island that seems to have suffered a hurricane. In one scene, there’s a guitar case and in another the band gear is floating out to sea. The video version differs from the album version in that the video ends on a fade out, whereas the album version ends with a more dramatic drumming and chorus.

    Tornado damage near Ringgold, GA, 
    April 27, 2011: source.

    IT SEEMS THAT THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER. This line was my mantra in college for a while. However, whenever I uttered it, it seemed the opposite happened—from credits not adding up to housing falling through. There was even the April 27, 2011–ten years ago yesterday— tornado outbreak that devastated the community the semester before my student teaching. Looking back at this song, I certainly missed the point. The message of the song is that life is hard and you rarely catch a break. Some days things start off pretty good, like waking up fully rested before your alarm and listening to a good song. The sun is shining and you realize there’s not too much pressing this day. However, quickly problems start piling up, and everything starts resolving the exact opposite way. A few fruitless missions too many and you wind up angry with the world, with the old man who’s not wearing a mask, with the department store for having a crappy selection, and you just want to be home–those are the times when you need to “keep a hold on and don’t let go.”

     

       

  • "So Sick (Ne-Yo cover)" by Max ft. Sam Tsui (produced by Kurt Hugo Schneider), Tuesday, April 27, 2021

     

    The Internet has launched many music careers, particularly over the last twenty years. Plug in the DSL and log on to the MySpace page, check MP3.com, visit the band’s Pure Volume account, see the latest video on YouTube, watch the singer get big on TikTok, and maybe get featured on a Podcast–it’s a brave new world only limited by Comcast (and certain regions of North Carolina where they refuse to lay the cable). While platforms have come and gone, YouTube has been a consistent place where singers have gotten their start. Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth, and Rebecca Black are some of the big-name acts that started out as YouTube stars. However, sometime in college, I started going down the rabbit hole of YouTube cover artists, starting with Tyler Ward. However, one cover has another in the sidebar, and you have to click on it. What does an acoustic version of “Like a G6” sound like anyway?


    SO TIRED OF TEARS. I can now say that I love many kinds of music. When I was younger, I wouldn’t admit to liking pop music. However, in college, artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and Adele were really catchy. I started listening to more and more popular music and having less shame about it–especially if I was watching a Tyler Ward cover. It was okay because he was playing a guitar and making it his own. Throughout this journey of finding a daily song, I’ve included a few YouTube covers. Covers rarely replace the need for the original song, but the age of the YouTube cover artist didn’t simply fill the world with knock-0ff shysters, trying to pass others’ original songs as their own. Instead, these cover artists offer a different perspective on the songs or different production choices that are worth it to have in my music library. For example, Tyler Ward’s version of “Teenage Dream” offers a male perspective on the Katy Perry song, as if we’re watching the story from another camera angle. Today’s song “So Sick” takes the ’06 electronics out of the Ne-Yo hit and focuses on the vocals of Max and Sam Tsui. 

    I’M TURNING OFF THE RADIO. Now many of the cover artists from the early 2010s are making their own music. “So Sick” was uploaded on Kurt Hugo Schneider’s channel in 2012. I find it interesting the fandom surrounding these YouTube cover artists. Yes, Max went on to create his own music and so did Sam Tsui; however, as cover artists, they gained massive sponsorships and their fame led to TV appearances and successful tours. What starts as a love for the original song and a look at another “camera angle” turns into a relationship with the cover artist. You start listening to the covers he or she puts out even if you don’t know or particularly like the original. Then they start producing their original content. The next thing you know, you’re listening to covers and the original, but because of the constant content from the YouTuber you feel like their friend. Of course, it doesn’t hurt if he’s cute. 
    Original by Ne-Yo:

    Cover by Max ft. Sam Tsui:

  • “The Wind Blows” by The All-American Rejects, Monday, April 26, 2021

     

    When I first heard of The All-American Rejects and their single “Swing, Swing,” I thought they would just be one of the many garage bands that would continue to make cheap videos on Fuse for a few albums before quitting the music industry. I was wrong. The band’s sophomore album Move Along blew up, hitting the Top 40. The band’s major label follow-up to Move Along, When the World Comes Down, had their biggest hit “Gives You Hell,” and the other two singles “I Wanna” and today’s choice “The Wind Blows” were moderately successful, but the band’s fourth record was mostly overlooked. While the TV show appearances (Smallville Season 6) and the tours with Taking Back Sunday and Anberlin may be over, the band’s legacy tells of a time when power pop, punk rock, and pop rock impacted the Top 40.


    I’LL LEAVE WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. Originally written for Gwen Stefani, “The Wind Blows” is one of The Rejects’ most poppy songs. The production is interesting, sounding almost effervescent as Tyson Ritter‘s voice lingers somewhere between your left and right headphones. Ritter’s voice isn’t particularly strong in this song, and the guitar could overwhelm, but the guitar is airy, only strummed for emphasis during the verse. The drums carry the verse until the guitar is given more permission to challenge Ritter’s voice in the chorus. Looking back, the band clearly wanted this song to make them the next Maroon 5. The video sees Tyson Ritter acting as the cool and laidback frontman of a successful band. The band is playing in the water, somewhat reminiscent of the Augustana video for “Boston” or The Starting Line’s video for “Island” (Float Away). 

    YOU’RE SO IMPOSSIBLE THAT I SHOULD SIGN A WAIVER. Several years ago, my students told me that there is a term in Korean for people who live with the wind, 바람 사람 (Wind person), if I recall correctly. This is kind of an insult towards a person who leaves when things get serious, however, the image it strikes in my mind is a person who is unobtainable. You want to know this person more, but they are too busy for you. This could be because this person has willfully made themself scarce or it could be because you look up to this person and they don’t realize it. You may have a crush on a person who gives you a little attention. You just get a glimpse of that person. The wind touches your face and then he’s gone. You might find yourself trying to make that person stay. You ask a question, but they’re always a little too busy. It’s not best to try to grasp “wind people.” If you catch that person, he’ll probably dematerialize. Instead, let the breeze blow and guide you in your journey. Someone will stick around.

  • “Better Now” by The Juliana Theory, Sunday, April 25, 2021

     

    Like Further Seems Forever, The Juliana Theory was legendary in the early pop-punk/emo scene. Also like FSF, The Juliana Theory has ties to hardcore. Lead singer Brett Detar started as the guitarist for Christian metal pioneers Zao, however, as he explains on Theory’s episode of Labeled, the band was perfectly content listening to Third Eye Blind on the radio in the van while out on tour. When Theory formed, they signed with Tooth & Nail Records but opted not to be marketed to the Christian Rock format. This decision both helped and hurt their career. On the one hand, they toured with other Tooth & Nail artists and performed at Cornerstone, on the other hand, their initial record sales were quite low. There has been much bad blood between the band and the record label, especially when the label made money on selling their song “We’re at the Top of the World” (To the Simple Two) to Disney to be featured in a Disney channel original, Motorcrossed, and the band didn’t feel fairly compensated. The hit, however, helped the band sign to a major label, but never achieved the commercial success they were chasing. The band broke up in 2006, but in 2020 they released the single “Can’t Go Home” and a reimagined album A Dream Away in January of this year.

    IT IS GETTING BETTER NOW. Unlike Further Seems Forever, I don’t have a deep seated nostalgia for The Juliana Theory. They were a band name I heard, but wasn’t actually exposed to their music until college, after the band had broken up. While some of their music was catchy, I felt that their Tooth & Nail predecessors did a better job at what they set out to do: further the emo/pop-punk genre. However, at the beginning of this year when I heard their two new singles “Can’t Go Home” and “Better Now,” I had found two songs that feel on the level of their predecessors. I think a big factor in this new Juliana Theory is Brett Detar’s growth as a musician. After the Juliana Theory’s initial run, Detar released two country albums and composed music for films. Rejoining with guitarist Joshua Filedler, the band is now a duo, which seems to be in line with where music is going. Let’s hope for more interesting music from The Theory to come.

    HOLD ON. As the pandemic presses on, people are spending a lot more time listening to music. What was once something in the background for work and school, more and more people are listening more intently to music, even at home. Emo is making a resurgence, too. It turns out that the same band who helped you through that awful breakup in high school is also there when you got laid off or you were afraid of what’s going to happen next. “Better Now” is an inspirational song celebrating the incremental accomplishments a person who is trying to turn their life around makes. The video depicts several three situations in which individuals make a decision to improve their lives from bad situations. From an U.S. Forces veteran who regains his ability to walk, to a drug addict mother who chooses to clean up her life because it’s influencing her son, to a mother who chooses to leave an abusive marriage, the message of the video is that change is possible. As the video may be triggering, there are helplines available for various crisis. While the times now may be bleak, music can help us believe that light is around the corner. We just need to hold on a little bit longer.

  • "The Sound" by Further Seems Forever, Saturday, April 24, 2021

    I’ve talked about Labeled podcast quite a bit. Their tagline: “The stories, rumors, and legends of Tooth & Nail Records,” certainly applied to their pilot episode: “Further Seems Forever: A Tale of Three Singers.” Further Seems Forever is a band that is seen as a landmark band in ’00s emo and Christian Rock, paving the way for the bands that have stuck around, such as Anberlin, Emery, and The Classic Crime, to name a few. However, FSF’s turbulent relationships with lead singers kept the band a bit of a legend for hipster music fans and a bit of a bands’ band, rather than a prolific force. The musicians of a Christian hardcore band, Strongarm, formed with emotional singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba, who left after the release of the band’s first release to release music under the moniker of Dashboard Confessional. The band found singer Jason Gleason to replace Carrabba, but Gleason left the band by the recording of the band’s third album.

     
    IF I HAD AN OCEAN TO COMPLIMENT THE SKY. My grandfather sent my family a gift back in ’98 or ’99–a lifetime subscription to the Sky Angel satellite service, a network of religious programming channels. Most of the programming was as awful as you’d imagine. Church 24/7, but in 2001, a new music programming station appeared which played Christian Rock, Hip-Hop, Metal, and Alternative music. TVU and their sister radio station RadioU was the music I was raised on in my high school years. TVU was a place where old low budget Tooth & Nail videos could be mixed with Jennifer Knapp and P.O.D. and scary metal videos. In 2001, Further Seems Forever released the video for “Snowbirds and Townies.” I found the singing a bit annoying, the “girlfriend” pretty average looking, the lead singer’s hairstyle annoying. But then “The Sound” was released.

    THIS IS A BURNING OF A DREAM. There are some songs that get deeper the more you study the lyrics, and then there are songs that sound like they were written by a 19 year old, trying to be deep. I haven’t been able to find great lyrical depth in Further Seems Forever. Their lyrics play on the impressions they leave, but ultimately there are so many images, the listener may wonder what the song is all about. My first impressions of the song are from the video. I loved it. The scenes of an empty city and mostly lead singer Jason Gleason singing on an empty bus and the other band members shown alone in a parking garage or a building late at night with the lights on showed a kind o f loneliness. This was contrasted to the band playing an energetic performance in a big room. Jason seemed so cool, yet emotional and deep. And he wore really tight pants and had a good body. I wouldn’t admit it at the time, but I had developed a crush on the guy.

    https://genius.com/Further-seems-forever-the-sound-lyrics

  • “Holding Onto You” by Jonezetta, Friday, April 23, 2021

     

    Cruel to Be Young was one of my college albums. I wrote a bit about the two Jonezetta albums back in January.  Rather than being an ’80s/Killers sounding album, the band went ’70s/laid back, hippy sounding music. According to Randy Torres episode of Labeled, the inspiration behind this album was The Shins, which was another college favorite of mine. While Aaron Sprinkle and Randy Torres may have had a great time making this record, it may have been the demise of Jonezetta as fans were expecting something catchy and dancy. Interestingly my college friends liked this album, but not their debut, but my hometown friends, loved Popularity and couldn’t get into Cruel to Be Young. Jonezetta’s follow up album reminds me of my youth–being 21 years old at its release, and how cruel it was to be a young Seventh-day Adventist.


    ALL THE DIFFERENT REASONS WHY YOU SLEEP ALONE. I’ve railed on purity culture so much without giving any person anecdotes. I speak from experience when I speak about how dangerous the teaching is. The opening line of this song when I heard it back in 2008 made me think about “all the different reasons why [I slept] alone. I was 21, in a Christian college, and trying to take my faith very seriously. I was pretty introverted and didn’t know a lot of people. I had insecurities about being a transfer student, about not being Adventist or too Adventist. I found myself studying in a major that was about 70% women. I saw my friends dating, and I thought I wanted that too. But every time I asked a girl out…it was like she would say that i was more like a friend. Or we would go out and the chemistry was nonexistent. I imagined myself 30 with a beautiful wife and 2.5 kids, but i never tell you HOW I got there. How we would have “Christian dated” and fulfilled God’s plan for our lives. The closer I got to it, the more frightening it seemed. The solution until 2014 was keep faithful and wait for God to keep working on my heart.

    EVERYONE IS CATCHING ON, I’M BEARLY HANGING ON. Purity culture tells us to examine our hearts and look for the broken pieces within ourselves. If we find those broken pieces, that is obviously the flaw. For so long I blamed my loneliness on those broken pieces. I would hear teaching, like “if you aren’t meeting the right person, take time to work on your relationship with God. Then he will send the right person.” How many times I tried that. It only led to bitterness. At those times I could lay my broken pieces on my dorm room bunkbed. There was the trauma of my parents marriage. The yelling, the coldness, the being away for weeks on end, the toxic bickering. Then there was the fact that all the girls God had in mind were not attractive to me, and the ones that were were out of my league. There was the fact that I would be in serious debt for ten years after graduating college. But of course there was the fact that I had been ruining God’s plan for my life with pornography. I had perverted my taste, I thought. Then there was the one piece I was afraid to admit. Ultimately, I believed, I was in control of my destiny–follow God’s plan for my life or follow my own desires. The problem with “God’s plan” (as interpreted by Evangelical, True Love Waits, Adventist, add any flavor to the mix) was that it made no account for sexual urges. So you’ve got young men either 1) getting married far too early or 2) living in constant shame, barely hanging on. Barely hanging on.

  • “Burn Out Blues” by Washed Out, Thursday, April 22, 2021

     

    In case you missed it, the summer of 2009 was called the summer of chillwave. Chillwave is a kind of electronic music that borrows from ‘80s nostalgia to produce a mellow, psychedelic music that aims to relax the listener. The genre uses lo-fi, a musical technique that takes what sounds like musical or sound mistakes and incorporates it into the sound, kind of like noise pop, but in a more subliminal, relaxing way. If you were to search for Chillwave, you’d definitely come across Washed Out. Their song “Feel It All Around” was released in July 2009, before the EP Life of Leisure in September 2009. The song and EP are said to be the best example of Chillwave. “Feel It All Around” was used as the opening theme for the show Portlandia, and when family members started watching Portlandia, the entire family was turned on to Washed Out, which is very rare for my family. Even my mom was listening to Life of Leisure. 

    JUST UNWIND. In the fashion of a true millennial music story, Earnest Weatherly Greene, Jr., better known by his stage name, Washed Out, turned to creating and producing music full time in his parents’ basement after unsuccessfully obtaining employment in his field: library science. So far, nothing has topped Life of Leisure. I’ve listened to a few other Washed Out tracks, particularly on Within and Without and Paracosm. Today’s song “Burn Out Blues” comes from Mister Mellow, which takes the indie musician in a totally different direction. “Burn Out Blues” is not pleasant to listen to, and I wouldn’t have chosen it. I would have skipped it. The next track on the record is somewhat more annoying. I would have completely cast off this record, except I set the song to my morning alarm this week, and I forced myself to listen to it. I watched the music video. I read the lyrics. Lyrics for Washed Out are usually simple, but then I got it. This song is a reminder how much we need to find our quiet time.

    IT’S ALL BEHIND YOU. Washed Out’s music and lyrics work as a kind of hypnotism, almost the way that meditation works. Nothing particular stands out as far as lyrics and many tracks fit in a playlist between other songs that seem to be more of a highlight. The melodies might make you think about something while you’re driving. I listened to one of Washed Out’s songs a lot when I was riding my bike. So one would think that Washed Out would continue to make this mellow music that it lyrically forgettable and musically inoffensive, but isn’t it the stressed out that need meditation the most? Once you get past the jarring intro, you can get into the melody and be struck by the message. It’s a coffee break rather than a weekend acid trip. It’s a micro-dose of relaxation before being pulled into the next thing. It’s a two-minute break between four classes in a row. It teaches you to enjoy just a moment before it’s gone. Breathe. Now focus on the next thing. Don’t burn out. You’re in this for the long haul.

  • “Like Steps in a Dance” by Anchor & Braille, Wednesday, April 21, 2021

     

    Anchor & Braille has been Anberlin‘s lead singer Stephen Christian‘s side project for a while. Some of Anberlin’s songs started out as Anchor & Braille songs. In 2009, Christian collaborated with Aaron Marsh and a few other hometown musicians including Louis DeFabrizio of Gasoline Heart and released A&B’s debut record Felt, an album that feels like if Christian were the lead singer of Copeland somewhere between their In Motion and Eat, Sleep, 

    Repeat releases. Anchor and Braille’s sound would very greatly over their occasional four albums as well as the make up of the ‘band’ would just become Stephen Christian collaborating in the studio with other musicians. I have yet to listen to 2020’s Tension from start to finish, but of the three albums, Felt feels the best. You can tell that it’s the same singer of Cities and Never Take Friendship Personal struggling relationships. 


    SHE MAKES THREATS I HOPE THAT SHE SEES THROUGH. Felt was an album that appeared in Junior year of college (one of them 🙂 around a month or so before New Surrender was released. The album was great studying music. Christian seems to make statements of faith with tracks like “Rust” (The Story of Mary Agnosia), “Introspect,” and “Sleep. When We Die,” and it was fun to see what a less-censored Stephen Christian might say. Ultimately, the album seems to be about loneliness and breakups. 
    Christian seems to lose the ability to write about these subjects in his follow up The Quiet Life as well as Anberlin’s Dark is the Way, Light Is a Place. Even though Anberlin’s Vital sees an improvement in Christian’s writing, he relies too much on cliches to talk around his subject matter. This is also present on the third Anchor & Braille record, Songs for the Late Night Drive Home.

    SING TO ME EVERY NIGHT AND I’LL MAKE YOU THE HAPPIEST MAN ALIVE. Anchor and Braille performed at Cornerstone in 2011. It was really just Anberlin playing in a tent. Anberlin had played an average show (“Feel Good Drag” as an encore?), headlining the main stage after Blindside had sub-headlined. The band rushed over to a small tent to play Anchor & Braille songs. Christian explained that “Like Steps in a Dance” was the radio hit of the album if the album were to have a radio hit. It’s one of the most fun and accessible songs on the album. Christian doesn’t explore the range of his voice as much on this song. The mechanical beat and the piano and guitar make the song quirky and memorable. As for the lyrics, it’s a veiled toxic relationship. If Christian writes about healthy relationships, he often runs into cliched lyrics. After completing this song and many one or two others, Anchor & Braille finished their set. My sister and I were able to get an autograph of Stephen’s novel The Orphaned Anything’s Memoir of a Lesser Known and we got a picture together. And that was the last time I saw Anberlin/Anchor & Braille in concert.