Anberlin Band • Page 237

I'm not interested in listening to the track again, but did they change much if anything musically about it? In terms of guitar parts, drum fills, anything?

If they really are going to release the entire album re-recorded with Maury, it would at least pique my interest slightly more if the songs were also reworked a bit - not that I'm saying they "need" it, but at least it would give something else to listen for and another reason for the rerecording to exist.

 

it's a new recording. outro is different/doesn't fade out like the original

 

It's my head canon that Christian is one of the main people pushing for this, since he didn't get involved with the band until NS.

 

I don’t get all the hate outside of his vocals being too processed. Seen 3 or so shows with Matty as singer and they’ve been good. If it’s no Anberlin or Anberlin with matty, I’m choosing the latter. Would’ve preferred someone else but I can’t control that and it’s fine. Then again I’ve never been a Stephen fan…

he’s always been a bit problematic if you dug below the surface. One podcast he did was really eye opening for me. Talking about early days and how he had someone on salary during tours to keep him in check from trying to have sex. He’s the type of person who paints himself in such a positive light, there has to be a fucked up dark side that you see time and time again with people like him. I don’t believe his good guy facade at all.

 

elaborate or provide source because dude what

 

I honestly believe that, don't a lot of his MMF lyrics have big slut shaming vibes to them?

 

He's talking about Stephen

 

think it's referring to Stephen here and not Matty (i did hear MMF had some slut shaming lyrics though). i think i vaguely remember Stephen saying something of that nature on the Bad Christian podcast way back in the day, but it sounded a lot like the accountability partner schtick that Evangelical Christianity loves to prop up as a means to sex shame (iirc, on the podcast Stephen mentioned losing his virginity on the NTFP tour and feeling a lot of shame about it given his upbringing, so having someone on the road to "hold him accountable" seems like a tactic he'd employ if he was feeling upset about that).

 

Oh my bad, reading is hard sometimes

 

my reservations with Stephen primarily involve who he associates himself with/what he stands for. there have been several instances in the past decade that gave me pause - be it propping up Sean Feucht's House campaign, following folks like Ron DeSantis and RFK Jr. on social media (iirc, i believe Stephen may have also been photographed with DeSantis at one point, but it could've also been another Florida Republican), collaborating on that Watashi Wa song, claiming he would've performed at Trump's first inauguration if asked as a way to unify a divided political landscape, beliefs in the "sinfulness" of identifying as LGBTQ+ that are so pervasive to Evangelical Christianity, etc.

it's just disappointing to hear from someone who always seemed reasonably well-spoken and called out forms of bigotry in the past.

 

I had a whole big David Bazan esq. departure from religion in my early 20's, and atheist speakers were a big help in getting me out of that even if I don't actively follow them anymore. But I remember one of talks I watched on religion had a quote that was roughly: "Religion can make normally reasonable people act completely unreasonably". I think about that a lot when I see people like Stephen. He makes art I really love, and when he's talking about music, or just stuff outside religion, he comes off as a fairly reasonable and articulate person, but then the religion mixes and we get the weird Watashi Wa song, or some of the more out of pocket stuff like the Trump comment. It's just weird, I accepted sometime during the hiatus that Stephen makes music I love, but it can be iffy checking out a podcast he went on.

 

As a person who was in that type of Christianity for a long time, all of those things track

 

yup. we talk a lot about rational choice as it pertains to religious beliefs and practices in my field of study (the sociology of religion). what looks asinine to a non-religious person might be more commonly-accepted by someone who is religious (and vice-versa). a lot of that justification comes down to the human desire to avoid bad and reap good, but the intentions behind what you perceive to be a rational choice should not negate the overall impact your choices will have.

Anberlin has never been overtly religious in their music (maybe Miserabile Visu and Hearing Voices are exceptions), so Stephen's beliefs have never really had as broad of an impact on their music as they might through other outlets. but it's still upsetting to know that he's at least partially influenced in his day-to-day life by some shitty people and ideas, and it makes it somewhat difficult to get excited about new music with his vocals.

 

lol one of their biggest songs literally says "praise ye the Lord" right in it and I cringe every time.

I've never listened to their later records, so it might actually not be in much of their discography, but yeah.

 

Cable Car is from the POV of god.

 

sure, but that felt about as religious as "the closer i come to you, the closer i come to finding God". one religious line in a song that doesn't strike me as overt.

wasn't aware of this. i guess diving into the lyrics more could reveal more religious subtext (i know Stephen had a Tumblr account where he explained all the lyrics from their first 7 albums), but it wasn't obvious to me

 

Definitely a bummer that the guy who wrote (*Fin) is the same dude who hangs out with Sean fucking Feucht.

 

that’s some Song of Solomon shit

 

So self-absorbed, you've seemed to ignore
The prayers that have already come about

This is the correlation of salvation and love
(Don't drop your arms)
Don't drop your arms, I'll guard your heart
With quiet words I'll lead you in

The end of the bridge: Grace marked your heart (With quiet words I'll lead you in and out of the dark). Christians are saved by grace.

This is Stephen’s take

This personal song is about those people who do not see how truly amazing they really are, they seem to give up before they see what life is about to show them. (Exodus 17).

Exodus 17 (the first half that fits this song) is about when the Jewish people were in the desert after being delivered out of Egypt. They grumbled and complained to God despite him saving them and leading them their own place. They were ungrateful and didn’t trust God. The verses kind of sum up that mindset in modern day language and context, IMO. God is describing what he sees and the chorus/bridge is a call back to him as he says what he will do. In Exodus, this moment was about needing water and he gave it to them. The chorus speaking directly to salvation and love falls right into place here.

People can view the song however they like, but this is where Stephen was likely thinking as he wrote this song.

 

What about it?

 

Yea…

this part always inspired me

“we’re not questioning god, just those he chose to carry on his cross
We’re no better you’ll see
Just all of us the lost causes”

Speaking to truth but maintaining humility. All I see is prideful men in Christianity these days.

 

Yup, this has always been my favorite passage from that song as well. My name is Timothy and while the men in the churches I grew up in weren’t named Billy, it was very easy to supplant Billy with their own names and faces in my mind when I’d hear the lines right before the ones above:

Billy don’t you understand?
Timothy stood as long as he could and now
You made his faith disappear
More like a magician
And less like a man of the cloth

That song made me cry the first time I heard it. So to see him with a guy like Feucht who hangs with other men like Driscoll just disappoints me so badly.

 

Yea, I think of certain people during that part, too.

yea, people like Driscoll are awful. Sad to say I was a big fan of him around 2007-2010 or so. Back then it wasn’t as problematic to listen to him. Then when he was outed for plagiarism and got kicked from his church along with the shady treatment of people there, I thought he’d stay gone. Now people occasionally post clips in my feed roasting him as he shouts praise on Trump like a full on moron. Gross.

 

last i heard about Driscoll was when he got into a verbal/Twitter sparring match with the pastor of my former church after being invited to speak at their men's conference and feeling offended they also hired a sword swallower that they didn't know was also a stripper on the side. said the church was influenced by a "spirit of Jezebel". even beyond all of his harmful rhetoric, the man is a damn fool, and it's sad people i know still love him. the church is also terrible too, but that's a different story.