So I was at work today...

...and I was deciding what music to play during my shift. And as anyone who knows me knows that music has a special little niche in my life, this was not exactly the easiest decision for me to make. Either way that's not the point. Here's the point... I through in Mike Doughty's album Houghty Melodic. (/Aside) Those of you who remember a small band from the nineties named Soul Coughing will recognize him as he is the lead singer of that tremendous band. Soul Coughing was incredibly quirky and innovative and I loved them for it. Interested parties will want to grab thier album Ruby Vroom. So good (/Aside). Anyways I put his newest cd on and it was just like listening to it for the first time. It opens with one of the catchiest songs I've heard in quite a while and I actually think that it got some radio play.... AAAAHHHHH! The song in question being Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well. But what really stuck out was how great of a lyricist Mr. Doughty is. He is extremely poetic and I think that Ben Folds put it best when he said, "There's just as much rock and roll in his poetry as there is poetry in his rock and roll".

Anyways I think that I'll share some of the lyrics that really jumped out at me...

"Slain by the words I lack
My world is bursting sappy music and
With the face so sad I long to make you mine"

"My circus train pulls through the night
Full of lions and trapeze artists
I'm done with elephants and clowns
I want to
Run away and join the office"

"Sunken-eyed girl in the sandwich shop
Ladle my soup from the kettle pot, so
Swoony my self with the smolder looks
Parsing that gaze for the right intention"

"I'm fucking starved for love
I deeply need to feel connection with the infinite
I want the nourishment
I need to drink it just like water, and it will sustain me"

Take that last one as a segue. The song that that is from is called His Truth is Marching On. If you want a take on his faith lookie here . Either way it makes my day when a person, such as Mike here, can write such a beautiful song about God and searching him. And yet it depresses me that I tend not to find songs like this in artists that are outspoken in their Christian faith. I guess that's why I'm so cynical of "mainstream Christianity". From what I see they throw the Christian label on it because they know if they do them Christians will buy it up. If you've ever seen the South Park episode on Christian Music then you'll know what I mean when I say that I couldn't have said it better myself. But then again I can't be too cynical as we do have Sufjan .

So to sum it up... go listen to some Mike Doughty... I think that you can here a few songs on his blog if you search around. I linked to it earlier if you didn't catch that.

Currently listening to... The Sunset Tree (album) by The Mountain Goats
Currently reading... Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton