I’m in a reflective mood tonight, and looking for songs to play that go with my mood. Some songs, like Mindy Smith’s Come to Jesus and Dolly Parton’s Jesus and Gravity are blatantly Christian, but I’m by no means limited to a particular brand of spirituality or genre of music. I’m also looking for evocative songs like Live’s I, Alone or U2’s 40.
Please, no XTC or anything angry. I’m looking for evocative. Spiritual. Hell, earlier I was listening to Angel from Montgomery and Carly Simon’s Let the River Run, which yes, I am aware is about capitalism as religion but it fits.
Guster has several songs that are vaguely spiritual without being overtly Christian. I think songwriters is Jewish, but I’m not sure. Rocketship is a good example.
Dream Theater’s “The Spirit Carries On” is very hymn-like and spiritual, though not precisely Christian (the song’s from a concept album about reincarnation.)
“Bus Stop” by tin machine now jesus he came in a vision / & offered you redemption from sin / i’m not saying that i don’t believe you / but are you sure that it really was him / i’ve been told that it could have been bluecheese / or the meal that we ate down the road / i’m a young man at odds with the bible / but i don’t pretend faith never works / when we’re down on our knees / praying at the bus stop
“Bushfire” by Midnight Oil, Earth and Sun and Moon
we’re gonna move those mountains aside…
These next three are pretty mournful, but I like 'em:
“Lullaby” by The Church, Sometime Anywhere
(pretty much a song of the Magi to the Christchild, albeit filtered through Kilbeyesque weirdness.) we come to pay homage to the golden one / we bear & share the message of your newborn son / … / his life will not be very long / before you know it / he will be gone
“Swan Lake”, The Church, Priest=Aura
o my ugly ducklings, nobody loves you / daddy said he’ll buy you some ballet shoes / but he spent all he had on hash / and avoiding another crash / now who will look after you? / one night your shoulders will ache / the next day when you wake / you’ll sprout wide wings and fly / just like in swan lake
“Lost”, The Church, Starfish
follow her down / to worship some god / who never speaks to me / i wonder if that’s odd / and then he says, “you’re never listening”
But then, I tear up at Z’s “Loser” (Shampoohorn), so what do I know?
“Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)” by Anberlin: one of the only songs I have heard about the Revelation by a band whose members are explicitly Christian but not a Christian Band per se. It’s epic without being angry or overly scary.
