Welcome! Thanks for checking out my blog about music, worship, and trying to join God in his work to restore the world. I'm excited to share some ideas – in both directions. Let the conversation begin. . .
This weekend at Willow, my friends Becky Johnson and Sharon Irving created something to help us prepare for communion. It was absolutely breathtaking, so I wanted to share it with you. (About half way through, the video goes live.) Enjoy!
You can read about the whole service at Willow’s worship blog: beyondsinging.willowcreek.org
We begin week two of the Blog Tour with a great post from…
[01.16.12] Blaine Hogan. If you ask me to name the most creative person I know, Blaine just might top the list. He is one of the most purely inventive, artistically generative people I’ve met. And being around him has pushed me deeper and farther and further than I would have gone myself.
And if you are a creative person (or aspiring to be more so), I highly recommend Blaine’s recent book: Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process. It’s full of inspiring vision and “But what should I do tomorrow?” practices…all of which have come out of Blaine’s own creative journey. So great!
If you are a worship or band leader, you’re going to love this profoundly inspiring TED talk by Conductor Charles Hazlewood. He shares about (and illustrates) the role of trust in musical leadership, and the potential power of what a unified group of artists can make…
The Brilliance at Axis
Last night, The Brilliance performed their new “Advent” album at Axis. It was stunning and beautiful and holy and deeply moving. Their first (self-titled) album was one of my favorite worship albums of last year, and this Advent collection will certainly be December’s soundtrack in our house. Here’s why I love The Brilliance…
Advent
They are more about beauty than hype.
They are more about honesty than entertainment.
They fuse an understated indie asthetic with conservatory musicality,
and create something really unique.
And personally, their music connects with something deep inside me.
Hear more HERE.
Any other Brilliance fans out there? Why do you love their music?
My friends Blaine, Bjorn, Paul, and Rhianna have been pouring themselves into this short film
for the Willow Christmas services. It looks amazing! I can’t wait to be a part of the live soundtrack…
Come join us at one of the services! Info HERE.
Thanks so much for the discussion about Coldplay’s album. I appreciate the push to see it in different ways and listen with fresh ears. And I love how passionate you all are about music and creativity and the future of music. So thanks!
As I look back at my original post, I regret how much I sounded like a music critic…rather than a lover of music. I don’t want to devolve into a music critic. Or a critic of any kind. It’s great to discuss art together and figure out what we can learn – especially as it helps us become better artists ourselves – but I never want to give in to the cowardly indulgence of sitting on the sideline and throwing stones. That’s too easy. Anyone can do that. But very few people have the guts to actually put themselves out there and risk making something.
So even though I don’t love Coldplay’s new album, I really respect the fact that they’re still out there swinging for the fences. And more than just critiquing what I don’t like about things, I want to use the space of this blog to point out what’s right. In fact, that’s the kind of person I want to be: making a big deal about the good and beauty I see around me…and keeping mostly quiet about the rest. Critics don’t make the world better. But creators do. (Even creators that sometimes seem to be trying too hard!)
So in the spirit of reminding myself which side of the creator/critic side of the fence I want to live on, here are some inspiring words from 101 years ago…
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Citizenship in a Republic (Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910)
Coldplay
To be honest, I’m of two minds about the new Coldplay album. I could build a case for why this is pop/rock music at its finest, and I could build a case for why Coldplay lost the magic 3 albums ago.
During my first listen through “Mylo Xyloto,” I was not impressed. In fact, all I could hear was the shiny production and over-reaching ambition. Had I written this review then, it would have been quite disappointed and dismissive. But then something happened. We brought the CD on a weekend road-trip, and a handful of the songs burrowed their way into my brain. “Paradise,” for example, is one of those songs I can’t get enough of. The bass is ENORMOUS and menacing, the slow groove is infectious, and the melody is like eating cotton candy with a side of deep fried chocolate bacon. (I know it’s not good for me…but I can’t help myself!) And although I pretend to be too cool, I bellow along with the “Ohs!” in the chorus on occasion. Okay…every time. And you should hear Henry sing, “Para, para, paradise“–that alone will make a fan out of anyone.
My other two favorites are the beautiful “Us Against the World” and the sure-to-blow-the-roof-off-every-live-venue “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall.”
But as much as I like these songs, I can’t shake the feeling that Coldplay is trying WAY too hard.
They want to be the biggest band in the world WAY too badly, and their music no longer feels as honest or organic as some of their older stuff. I’d be surprised to hear Chris Martin say “I’m not sure if people will like it, but these songs just gushed out of me and I had to share them.” Obviously, I don’t know them or their motives or their creative process, but this album sounds (to me) meticulously and expertly crafted for radio, stadium, and world domination.
As you know, “Rush of Blood to the Head” is one of my favorite, all-time albums–check out How Coldplay Saved me as a Worship Leader–and I’m desperate for them to recapture some of that magic. I want to say “Guys, please strip all the shiny production away, tell Rhianna ‘thanks but no thanks,’ stop trying to compete with more talented bands, and sit down in a small room to write some brilliant songs again.
“And Chris, please don’t write for the radio or for Billboard or to chase Bono. Lady Gaga is creating plenty of pop music that will be forgotten down the road. Don’t feel pressure to write songs you think we want to hear. We need you to be brave enough to dig deep back into the fragile, neurotic, honest place that makes you great…and create something truly human again. You’ve done it before (“Politik“, “The Scientist“), and I believe you can again.”
—-
What do you all think? Strongly agree or disagree? What’s your take on Coldplay’s music?
My friend Izzy shared this with me. It is everything that is right with Radiohead squeezed into four minutes…
I have to admit that I’ve been in a bit of a music listening rut. It’s been a long time since a new CD has really captured me. (Florence + the Machine was probably the last one)
But in the last couple weeks, two albums have been on constant rotation – both in iTunes and in my mind…
St Vincent
(1) St Vincent. I’ve been hearing about her for a long time, but my friend Izzy finally pushed me over the edge and said “Aaron, you HAVE to buy her new album!”. I downloaded Strange Mercy immediately and proceeded to have my mind blown. This album is strange and beautiful and aggressive and quirky and profoundly original. (It should come as no surprise that she was a part of Polyphonic Spree – who I love – and Sufjan Steven’s touring band.)
The highlight of the album for me is “Cheerleader”, which you can watch her perform at The Met Museum HERE. The menacing bass growling underneath the soaring melody of the chorus kills me every time.
(2) Gungor. In spite of being consumed with St Vincent, a friend of mine released an album last week that is equally brilliant. Maybe more so. Sincerely. Gungor’s new album “Ghosts Upon the Earth” is phenomenal.
While they began as a worship band, and remain vaguely in that camp, this new album pushes the boundaries of what “worship music” can be. Thank God. Far from 10 happy songs about heaven, “Ghosts” takes us on a cinematic journey from the creation of the universe to the end of the Story. In fact, calling it “worship music” is misleading. It’s more accurate to call it “spiritual music that is actually good music.” The album is dark and mournful at moments (in a Damian Rice sort of way), bright and upward and infectious (like the best of Jonsi), heavy and fuzzed out (as if Muse decided to sing about something beside space aliens)…all tied together with great melodies and ever-morphing time signatures. Here is how Gungor describes it…
Any St Vincent or Gungor fans out there? (It’s definitely a strange pairing of artists…)
What music is blowing your mind these days?
Elbow
Since 1996, I’ve had the chance to make a ton of music and lead a lot of worship services with Troy Hatfield. He’s a killer musician, true pastor, deep thinker, and one of the best frisbee golf players on planet earth. We co-lead the worship team at Mars Hill Church for a handful of years, and he continues to lead there today. I think really highly of him.
Troy just wrote an article called “Learning from Elbow” that I think every worship leader should read. (Elbow is a brilliant Manchester band that Troy’s been following for years. They have since become one of my favorites also.) Anyway, this is a great nudge to all of us who lead worship…
Hi everyone!
As most of you know, some friends and I have been pouring the last few months into a new adventure called “A New Liturgy”. It’s been harder than I could have imagined, and one million times more fun.
The first liturgy – “God is Love” – will be officially available at a new web site next Thursday, September 15th. But since you are all so kind to stop by this blog, here’s a sneak preview. (For best audio quality, after you hit “play”, click the 240p below and select 720p). This is a short section from the first movement…
I can’t wait for you to hear the whole thing! Thanks so much for being interested. More coming soon…
Henry, my friend Jason, and I spent a couple hours on Friday wandering around the Art Institute of Chicago. I love it there, and always leave inspired and stretched and filled up. But among all the beauty and genius, we stumbled upon this piece from 1919…
Over There Over Here (c.1919)
Basically, this is a propaganda piece from the end of World War One. And the message is very clear:
It’s terrible over there and great over here. They are sub-human brutes, and we are civilized winners. Everything about there and them is bad, and everything about here and us is good.
I’m really glad we’ve grown out of that either/or, us vs. them thinking in these last hundred years, aren’t you? Can you imagine if we still believed that WE (our country, our political party, our belief system, etc) held all the truth and all the wisdom, and THEY had nothing good to contribute? What a sad and dangerous world that would be!
Please forgive the sarcasm. This is something that breaks my heart and scares me. And it does for two main reasons… First, this “we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys” approach is wrecking our country (just look at Washington) and threatening our whole world (consider the Middle East). Who will stand up and lead us higher? Is there a grown-up around? Second, I still have so much of this “us vs. them” thinking alive in me. And as soon as I rail against “those narrow-minded either/or people!”, I hear the rooster crow and realize that I am one of them. Or as Fr Rohr likes to say, “I have found the problem, and it is me.”
O God, please have mercy on us today.
May we find Your fingerprints everywhere we look, and Your image in everyone we meet.
Chris Martin
First, I must admit that I’m only a moderate Coldplay fan. “Rush of Blood” was one of the greatest albums of that last ten years, but I’m pretty sure they’ll never reach those heights again. However, I was watching their performance on the iTunes Festival app recently, and I was reminded how Coldplay saved me as a worship leader.
True story: In 1998, I graduated from college with a Music Theory and Composition degree, determined to write music that blew peoples’ minds and set the music world on fire (humble, huh?).
My first job was as a worship leader for the high school ministry of Willow Creek, helping students to sing and pray and connect with the Almighty.
So I began writing songs for us to sing…and not those lame, 3 chord, boring pop songs. I created epic, complicated masterpieces that soared through key changes, polyrhythms, and time signature changes. Yes, I was the Freddie Mercury of high school worship music.
The problem was that even though this music deeply connected with me (and a few members of the band), no one could sing along. In fact, most of my songs crashed and burned with students. They didn’t always hate the songs. They were just confused. Yes, I was the Bjork of high school worship music.
But then I heard “The Scientist” by Coldplay. And everything changed.
How could this ridiculously simple song move me in such a deep way? My Theory 2 professor would have laughed the predictable chord progression out of class, but I could not stop listening to it. Or playing it. Or thinking about it. This song captured the magic and transcendence that I was looking for in all my complex harmonic adventures, AND it brought the whole world along for the ride. Stunning. I had so much to learn.
If you don’t believe me, put on some headphones, turn up the volume, and listen to “Politik” with your eyes closed. “Oh give me love over, love over this…”
That’s the kind of pop song that can change the world. Or at least change the way we see it! A song doesn’t have to be simple OR moving…accessible OR authentic…sing-able OR deep. It can be a glorious marriage of both. And by stripping a song (or emotion) down to its very essence, it can become, in many ways MORE moving and MORE authentic.
So for all you fellow music snobs out there, what song or band violates “the rules” of making cool music…and instead makes simple music that moves you?
Many of you know that I’m deep in the thick of working on a new endeavor called “A New Liturgy”, which has me both overwhelmed and deliriously excited. So many of the things I’m most passionate about are coming together in this grand experiment, and it’s really thrilling.
Basically, each New Liturgy is a 25 minute journey of music, prayers, space, scripture that pastors people on a journey. It’ll be quirky, progressive, holy, active, beautiful, creative, and honest…hopefully a worship experience for people who don’t always connect with worship music. Imagine the band Elbow leading a Catholic mass…with lots of piano.
I’m so excited that I can barely sleep at night.
The first New Liturgy is called “God is Love” and will be available mid September. The second one is called “Blessed to Be a Blessing” and will be available in early October. I can’t wait for you to experience them. Here’s a quick video from the night we tracked piano…