Album Review: Sound Theology

This album had more smiles per song than any album I can remember listening to. I wanted to do this as a separate entry so I can give you some of his thoughtful and poignant lyrics.

The full name of the album is "Sound Theology: Perspectives on Faith and Rock & Roll from a Finnish-American Midwestern Generation X Lutheran at the Turn of the Century" It is a double disc with 52 tracks, one for each week on the liturgical calendar.

Jonathan is not a great singer, and the production on the album is a little rough. None of the songs on the album were recorded in a studio, but were mostly recorded on a 4 track in various places. I actually love of the roughness of it, but I really enjoy is that I can think of nothing I have that sounds like it even with the various styles he uses in his music, or addresses the same issues as his songs. Jonathan is an outstanding song writer, and it focuses on everyday struggles, thoughts, events, and situations with a refreshing and interesting perspective.

His songs address his respect for his faith heritage, but also show some of his questions and disagreements. The first song, "Church Directory" celebrates his own families' faith heritage. "We're Creating Monsters" discusses the selfishness of throwing tradition out the window without investigating what is good and what is not.

"creed and kyrie
they don't know how to say
take it over sixty minutes
you can't make 'em stay
we have an opportunity
to rise to the occasion
but we'd rather have capacity
than a congregation

so we dumb this down
dumb this down
we're creating monsters

He says in the liner notes, "I notice that some younger Christians are as intolerant of traditions as the elderly members are of guitar and drums."

He also is willing to look at the ridiculous Christian counter-culture we've created and how it feeds our materialism with the song "Xian Bookstore"

at the xian bookstore
there is product to be sold
so over there in China
there's some little 8-year-old
working in a factory and rarely going home
she's assembling plastic pencil cases
with the words to that "Footprints" poem

well, i wonder if the kids
who buy those Bible action playsets
ever stage a "cleansing of the temple"
re-enactment?
now no one knows for sure
but i think it's safe to say
if Jesus hadn't risen
he'd be rolling in his grave

Pretty hard hitting for a 52 second song. And Jonathan backs it up with his music by refusing to sign with a Christian label. He believes good art should stand on its own. In fact, all the press I could find on this album came from secular sources.

He addresses loving God completely and intellectually with "I Love You with All of My Mind" that warns against just having an emotional faith. My other favorite is the song "Easier" where he thinks about leaving his heritage, but comes to this conclusion:

i've never been bad at badness
so the good king came down from the castle
yeah grace is free but it ain't cheap
and it proves that faith is worth the hassle
it feels like a hassle but it's worth it

yeah, it would be so much easier
to leave this faith behind
but easy's often stupid and rarely wise
yeah, it would be so much easier
to go out on my own
but easy ain't no good when you're alone

In the midst of these songs he has some very enjoyable and clever songs such as "Carol of the Bells" about a girl in the bell choir he has a crush on, and "The Glasses' Song" that laments his bad eyesight. "Closed Out..." reflects on the pain of not being able to participate in communion at a church he was visiting. There are classic hymns, love songs, everyday life songs, etc.

While some of the connections to the liturgical calendar are clever, and some a bit stretched, it is still a very creative, fun, interesting, and poignant album.

I did find one song sample online in the list of a newspaper writers list of the top 10 best Christian songs (compiled by a secular Jew). This is the first song I heard from him and the reason I bought the album, which was originally downloadable from Paste Magazine's website. But alas, it is not there anymore. But it is here. Listen to "My Apology"

Track List:
(Disc 1)
1. Church Directory 2:28
2. Come Thou Long Expected Jesus 0:43
3. Workin' my Committee 3:33
4. Four Candles 2:22
5. Out Behind the Old Hotel 1:53
6. Cold, But I Don't Mind 3:33
7. Let Me Be Yours 2:19
8. Local Road 4:20
9. The Prophetstown Tornado 2:42
10. The Loneliness of Happiness 3:00
11. In Thee is Gladness 0:50
12. Find Your Way to Prague 3:18
13. Ashes 2:38
14. Cautious Springtime Blues 2:25
15. We're Creating Monsters 2:41
16. My Apology 3:44
17. Tired Tired Tired 2:26
18. Ah, Holy Jesus 0:39
19. A Farm in Minnesota 2:47
20. Forgiveness Waltz 3:59
21. Chopin's Heart 2:06
22. Xian Bookstore 0:53
23. A Little More Than Me 2:28
24. My Broken Heart is Miss (sic)You 3:36
25. Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Your Word 1:23

(Disc 2)
1. I Love You With All of My Mind
2. Carol of the Bells
3. I Don't Want To Go To Hell
4. Failing Rockstar Attempt
5. Arise, My Soul, Arise!
6. Wide Awake
7. A Better Place
8. Easier
9. Dumb Summer
10. Minneapolis
11. If I Ever Get There
12. Waiting for the Rain
13. No Time To Breathe
14. Deadly Life
15. Oswiecim
16. I Want Jesus to Walk With Me
17. Closed Out...
18. You Don't Speak For Me
19. Are You Speaking Through the Radio?
20. The Glasses Song
21. The Stars Start to Take On That Same Old Shine
22. Row Out the Boat
23. Dance of the Confirmands
24. Bright Funeral
25. Godforsaken
26. Texas Kyrie
27. What Wondrous Love is This

-review was written to The Beatles 1. I won't rate it, because I like the Beatles, but their influence on the music I love is what makes me respect them so much.