Happy Hollow

This week saw the release of the first new Cursive album in a few years. As many of you will know, they're one of my favourite bands of all time (top 3, along with Mineral and At the Drive-In, I'd say). I also went to watch them this Monday as well, on the release date. It was a good show overall, they played quite a few old classics as well as stuff off the new album, and encored with The Martyr. During the encore set, I waited for a that lull of silence that you sometimes get, then shouted at the top of my lungs "Tides Rush In". They didn't play it, but it embarrassed the rest of Action and Action who were with me, and caused Cursive to give one another wry smiles. Find me a band that likes to play its own early songs if you can. I don't know any.

Back to the new album. I like it, musically - it has quite a lot of the jauntiness of the Ugly Organ about it. However, I'm not confortable with some of the approaches that Tim Kasher takes, lyrically. There has long been an element of his writing that's used religious imagery in a fairly agnostic way, sometimes quite cleverly. What's changed with this album is that he's taken a turn to be so anti-religious and specifically anti-clerical that I find it a bit wearing to listen to. It's almost too much of an easy target. Young people who listen to bands like this already have a pretty negative view of religion, so cranking up your critique of Christianity really isn't all that constructive (and though there are exceptions within this album, it's largely against Christianity because noone likes to take on a religion like Islam where its adherents might actually have something to say or do to you for attacking their beliefs). It's not even really because I'm a Catholic that it bothers me, but there's something so overwhelmingly negative about the portrayal of priests (among the rest of the cast of ever more sordid characters) that feels draining. Isn't it about time rock bands found someone else to attack?

Notwithstanding that there are lots of men and women throughout history, and out there right now, who have dedicated themselves selflessly to the religious life - which has led to a huge amount of humanitarian work, incidentally - doesn't it feel as if we played out these arguments long ago during the so-called-Enlightenment? The anti-Creationist rhetoric gets boring, and literalist, and starts to detract from the music. Maybe this is how Nebraskans see their religion, but it's not an accurate reflection of modern Christianity as experienced by most of us.

I hope I can get past this lyrical straightjacket, because I don't want it to ruin my future enjoyment of one of my favourite bands.