The Church Questions The White Stripes, Warns Against The Strokes, but Arcade Fire Gets Saved

It's time check in with our Catholic friends over at Plugged In magazine to read what they think of what we listen to. Get our your bibles and prepare to repent. As I've written before, Plugged In magazine is a Catholic faith based magazine for parents to advise them on popular culture and what's appropriate for their family. I find endless amusement for this sort of thing.

First off, The White Stripes are already going to hell for being divorced, which as we know, is a no-no. As we awaited the release of Icky Thump, let's see what they have had to say about Get Behind Me Satan. The title alone will have parents covering their children's ears...

Sexual come-ons on “Instinct Blues” and “Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)” allude to the behavior of birds, bees and other amorous critters. An ill patient is paranoid that his caregiver will wound, poison or smother him on “The Nurse,” a dark metaphor for being betrayed by a loved one. Desperate for companionship, the singer teeters on the brink of moral compromise on “I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet).” A mild profanity mars “The Denial Twist.” After a few drinks, a male fan obsesses over 1940s actress Rita Hayworth on “Take, Take, Take.”  ... The blistering guitar licks and Robert Plant-style vocals of the duo’s last effort have been replaced by eclectic sounds. The lyrics? Still vague, so what’s questionable isn’t extreme but warrants discussion.

Okay, then. What do they actually mean when they sing, "I'm thinking about my doorbell, when you going to ring it. When you going to ring it."? I guess Jack wants a girl to ring his doorbell, so he can open the door and have dirty, filthy sex with the girl. Damn, and I thought this album was innocent.

The Strokes. Well, dag gone it, The Strokes' name is wither referencing to a medical stroke or stroking a person's private parts. Sometimes, you can't win in the eyes of the church. Let's read what the hip editors think of their last album, First Impressions of Earth...

The singer does anyway, letting paranoia make him assume the worst of catty females. Similarly, he puts cruel words in the mouth of a woman on “Razorblade.” Numerous songs are awash in romantic angst. A few resort to profanity. The opening line of “Heart in a Cage” uses the f-word. An s-word mars “Vision of Division,” on which a guy dumps a girl because her friends annoy him. Alcohol is a friend in awkward social situations (“Electricityscape”), and the singer calls his girlfriend an “a--hole” as he observes that partiers are “drunk, loud and p---ed off” (“Fear of Sleep”). Spiritual confusion marks “You Only Live Once” (“Countless odd religions too/It doesn’t matter which you choose”). Other lyrics are more vague. “On the Other Side” could be about suicide or drowning sorrows in booze. “Red Light” seems to involve picking up a prostitute (an illustration of a woman in the liner notes reveals rear and breast nudity). A guy is waiting for “action” and “love” on “Juicebox.” 

F-word, s-word, a-word, p-word, My word! We have a lot words going on here. How did congress not have hearing on this album? If only Plugged In knew the stories of what these boys use to do starting out in NYC, their ears might catch of fire.

Since Oasis likes the criticize everyone except bands who sound exactly like them, it's time someone points the finger at them, Let ye without sin cast the first stone, Liam Gallagher. Let's look at the objectionable material of their masterpiece, What's the Story (Morning Glory)?

The singer looks forward to getting drunk and high on "Champagne Supernova" (not surprising considering the songwriter's creative formula of "me and a guitar and a bottle of Jack Daniels" [USA Today, 2/24/95]). A profanity mars "Hello." "Roll with It" advises against self-sacrifice ("don't ever be denied . . . don't let anybody get in your way . . . don't ever stand aside") ... It's an improvement over the band's last album, Definitely Maybe, but these British rockers still need to make changes, lyrically. In addition, their concerts and private lives have been characterized by much-publicized arrogance and excursions into vice. What's the story? Oasis needs to clean up its act. 

That will show them. Clean up your act, brothers. Actually, to correct them. In "Champagne Supernova," the line is "Where were you when we were getting pie?"

Finally, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is highly recommended as more as starting point for discussion about the gray area between Christianity and consumerism...

Arcade Fire comments on the church. The title track perhaps implies Christianity has been corrupted by popular culture, and that the resulting "neon bible" can't provide the light we need. Next up is "Intervention," which describes a man who's sold his soul to the church and lost everything that mattered ("Working for the church while your family dies/You take what they give you and you keep it inside/Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home") ...

Sharply critical of just about everything—sometimes to the point of throwing babies out with the bathwater—Neon Bible goes beyond expressing melancholic paranoia. It ultimately suggests that, specifically, mindless consumerism and shallow, self-serving religion are accelerating our culture's decay. As a result, it's just as difficult to escape the album's somber judgments as it is to ignore the fact that Arcade Fire has created a musical tour de force—one that won't readily let go of its listeners. 

They should of heard the f-bombs coming out of Win's mouth at the Judson Memorial Church. We all can't be saints.

 

Comments

[andrew]

Morning Glory is certainly not their masterpiece. That title belongs to Definitely Maybe. And more power to them, I say. We need someone like Noel around to slag off shiteheads like Kele Olabsbafasekreke or whatever the fuck his name is.

[justin]

Man... for someone with such strong opinions on Christianity, you really don't understand the faith... nr do you try to...