Tuesday, December 21, 2010

A term paper worth reading: On religion and American nationalism




My Writing About the Apocalypse research papers came in last week. I just finally finished reading and grading them yesterday. One of them was so cogently written, and addressed such an important issue in such a clear headed fashion, that I wanted to post it on my blog. I had asked the writer of this essay if I could post it on my blog. The student in question said yes, but upon some further thought asked for me not to use his/her name because the person in question is currently applying to graduate schools and has some concerns about the political content of this paper. If you respond to the essay, I will forward your remarks onto the writer. This was one of the five best research essays I have received in my class in more than 20 years of teaching.


On Christian Nationalism

A popular email forward that made viral headway after the 2004 presidential election reorganized the United States along electoral lines, joining Canada with the left-leaning northeast and western coastal states under the moniker “United States of Canada,” and assigning an entirely new geographic title to the south and midwest: “Jesusland.”

The map colorfully expressed a darker reality: like a multitude of leading economic and military powers before it, the United States has embraced radical religion, buoyed by hubristic notions of national exceptionalism, that pose a dangerous liability to policymaking and to the future of the empire. The historical quandary is that while religion has by and large been an asset to mankind, there are clear exceptions to this trend, like macabre religious wars and virulent crusades.

Indeed, if history repeats itself, the model of previous military and economic powers prove that intemperate religion accompanies the decline of empires. Topics like global warming, resource depletion, and military conflict staged in Christian, Muslim, and Jewish holy lands make it imperative that United States public policy is guided by rational discourse and scientific fact, not creationism or the literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. The concerns facing the United States are perhaps even greater than those facing leading empires before it, as the world has entered a nuclear age and warfare has a new potential to bring to bear a most injurious and devastating outcome.

In an essay published in The American Conservative, Theodore Dalrymple intoned that “God is dead in Europe, and I do not see much chance of revival except in the wake of catastrophe.” (Dalymple). He continued to present an argument oft laid out by members of the religious right. Under this view, “Americans are apt to believe in their own exceptionalism,” for in addition to American military power, geographic isolation from the conflicts of other nations and a founding based on optimistic philosophies rather than sociobiology, Americans maintain an emphatic religious belief. Dalrymple argues that:


Religion has survived better [in the United States] than in countries where religious belief has been closely associated with temporal power. Once the power to enforce conformity and suppress dissent declines in states where there has been a state religion, religious belief itself declines precipitately, for it is seen as having chosen the wrong side of history. There is no danger of this in the U.S., and the religiosity of Americans keeps alive the little platoons that are so important in maintaining the vigor of civil society independent of government…. In short, the United States is free, or nearly so, from the principal factors that have led to the decline and immobilization of Europe, its sclerosis, rigidity, and lack of ability to confront the challenges facing it. (Dalrymple)

Yet Dalrymple’s proclamation disregards a long trajectory of historical precedent that illustrates the clearly negative consequences of religious overreach. The concept of American exceptionalism asserts that Americans are uniquely special, “a nation chosen by God himself to play a unique and even redemptive role in the world.” (Phillips, p. 125) Americans were destined to save the world from fascism and tyranny during World War II, and they were destined to disseminate principles of freedom and democracy across the Middle East.

This concept is not new, nor is it unique to the United States. The citizenry of all leading empires have believed themselves chosen, and much like apocalyptic theory, it is only when the belief is disproven and no plausible explanation can be provided that settles both assertions -- if it was Britain’s duty to save the world, why then must the United States save Britain? -- that adherents reject it. An ardent grasp of religion that undergirds already prevalent national hubris can be seen as a particularly disquieting bellwether signaling the end of an empire.

Religion need not be the defining causal factor of empire decline, but it more often than not occurs during the empire’s downward turn. Ancient Rome, for example, began as a polytheistic and reasonably tolerant state, but as Kevin Phillips carefully explains in his American Theocracy, an “overconfident and intolerant Christianity” practiced a coercive religion that hastened “the forces of disintegration and dissolution.” (Phillips, 221) Spain rose to power through a clear embrace of Catholic religion, reconquering the Iberian Peninsula from Islam, and greatly expanding the empire as conquistadors and religious teachers spread Catholicism throughout what would become Latin America.

Again, coercion and intolerance precipitated the empire’s downfall, as the Spanish inquisition “bred a climate of orthodoxy and fear” and Spain “sagged under the weight of church bureaucracy… and the crown’s preoccupation with advancing Catholicism globally.” (Phillips, 222-3) Catholicism engulfed any attempt at appropriate statesmanship, as historian Paul Allen explains, “Spain’s monarchs and ministers would steadfastly reject… reason of state approaches to policy in favor of providing solid support for the Catholic cause, even at the expense of Spain’s empire. In so doing, they fulfilled to the letter Phillip II’s pious vow to Pope Pius V that ‘rather than suffer the least damage to the Catholic church and God’s service, I will lose all my states and a hundred lives if I had them.’” (Phillips, 224)

In Britain, Phillips noted, “Moral pretension became a second [national] flag.” Missionary activity swelled during the nineteenth century, as did moral imperialism, “belief in Britain’s duty to save the world.” (Phillips, 225)

The rising trend of secular humanism among northeastern university graduates and cultural elites makes it more difficult to recognize the United States as a deeply religious nation, but religion has overwhelmingly shaped American history and cultural tradition. In designing the Great Seal of the United States, Benjamin Franklin proposed the seal bear a depiction of “Moses standing on the Shore, extending his Hand over the sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by command of the Deity.” (Medved, 89)

Thomas Jefferson proposed an illustration of the Children of Israel guided by fire in the wilderness. Ultimately, the chosen seal bore a secular design created by Philadelphia artist Pierre Eugene du Simitere. Alexis de Toqueville expounded on the omnipresent and insidious influence religion wielded on American life after his travels in the nineteenth century, and periodic religious revivals during this time incited a significant increase in church membership. American religions are especially suspect to revivalism, and many are wholly unique to the United States.

As cultural historian Christine Heyrman has explained, in order for Baptists and Methodists to make headway in the early South, they had to eliminate from the bible philosophies that would be considered radical to the Southern way of life, like the promotion of egalitarian social systems and opposition of slavery. This had a tendency to alter, she said, “often drastically, many earlier evangelical teaching and practices concerning the proper roles of men and women, old and young, white and black…. As a result, evangelism looked much different in the 1830s than it had in the 1790s.” (Heyrman, 216)

The United States also spawned religions like Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, all of which exert significant political impact. Among other things, Seventh Day Adventists regularly challenge labor laws, as their religion dictates rest on Saturday, Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse service in the military, and the founder of Mormonism initiated a brief run for president. Today, scholars routinely include the United States in their studies of nations where religious fundamentalism has taken root, lumping it together for analysis with nations like Iran and India.


In their compendium Fundamentalists Observed, Martin Marty and Scott Appleby argue that “fundamentalisms arise in times of crisis, real or perceived. The sense of danger may be keyed to oppressive and threatening social, economic or political conditions, but the ensuing crisis is perceived as a crisis of identity by those who fear extinction as a people.” (Marty, 882) Charles Kimball, one of the pre-eminent voices on religious and Mideast history expanded upon this in his When Religion Becomes Evil, theorizing that there are five key warning signs. Fundamentalists, he argues, claim to hold knowledge of Truth. By that notion, they “presume to know God” and manipulate religious texts to “propagate their particular visions of absolute truth.” (Kimball, 54)

They also cite an ideal time, claiming imminent apocalypse or end of days scenarios. They promote blind obedience to their religious and spiritual beliefs, and they use ends to justify means. Finally, they pursue holy wars, like the Crusades or jihad. Both Martin and Appleby and Charles Kimball are among a large group of scholars who consider Southern Baptists, the United States’ second largest religious denomination, to be fundamentalists.

The burgeoning religious right emerged as a strongly voiced political participant during the Cold War, asserting that the evil empire of the Soviet Union was both a biblical and political enemy. Religious authorities argued frequently that the Soviet government was the ultimate evil referenced in the bible. In the last thirty years the religious right shifted concern from the defunct Soviet Union to the Hussein regime in Iraq. Now state Republican parties in the south and southwest have in large number sanctioned “Christian Nation party platforms,” political platforms that espouse the radical political theology of the Christian Reconstructionist movement.

Key principles espoused by this movement include the promotion of religious schools, the subordination of women to men in keeping with the familial role women hold in biblical stories, and most worrisome, the use of the Bible as a framework for establishing and evaluating domestic law. It is true that Christian Reconstructionism is far from a household name: few Americans are familiar with the term and few self-identify as part of the movement, but it is important to note that many Christian figures who would not self-identify as part of this movement still subscribe to some or all of their positions.

For example, Southern Baptists, Mormons, and Missouri Synod Lutherans all ascribe women secondary status, like Reconstructionists contending that the role of women should be biblical and familial. Further, groups like the First Amendment Foundation and Theocracy Watch argue that Christian Reconstructionists exert a large degree of influence via groups that share many of their more moderate viewpoints, like the Southern Baptist Convention, Christian Coalition, Assemblies of God, and Christian Broadcasting Network. The opinions of many members of the religious right are shaped not just by the Bible, which they consider to be the inerrant word of God, but by increasingly popular apocalyptic literature.

A 1999 Newsweek poll determined that more than 40 percent of Americans believe that a clear chronology of end-times events is specified in the Bible.(Ortega) Most theologians disagree with such a belief, but its origins can be traced back to the teachings of John Nelson Darby, an Angelican priest divested of his position who paid frequent visits to the United States during the nineteenth century, disseminating an inventive and radical reading of the Bible predominantly shaped by a dispensationalist interpretation of Biblical prophecies.

His claims were expounded upon through popular books by Cyrus Scofield, Hal Lindsey, and most emphatically, evangelical minister and former co-chair of Jack Kemp’s short-lived presidential campaign, Tim LaHaye, whose Left Behind series has reached an audience of approximately 60 million Americans. In the series, a Romanian politician is not only the antichrist but United Nations secretary-general, and a family of born-again Christians must save the lost in preparation for the impending Tribulation.

As Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism argued in Salon, the books are important because they “[provide] a narrative and theological rationale for a whole host of perplexing… policies, from the White House’s craven decision to cut off aid to the United Nations Family Planning Fund to America’s surreally casual mobilization for an invasion of Baghdad -- a city that is, in the Left Behind books, Satan’s headquarters.” (Goldberg) Obviously, it would be irresponsible to argue that every reader of apocalyptic literature is a Christian fundamentalist, but Goldberg’s larger point, that the “Christian theory of everything… that slates current events into a master narrative in which the world is destroyed and then remade to evangelical specifications…. an alternative universe in which conservative Middle Americans are vindicated against everyone who doesn’t share their beliefs -- especially liberals and Jews” is tolerable on a fantastical level, but inherently dangerous when the author is “at pains to show that the Left Behind books are meant as more than fiction.” (Goldberg)


This collection of literature helps to explain the motivation of the religious right. While certainly a special interest group, the religious right wield enormous power in the political arena. To wit, as much as 70 percent of the 2004 Bush electorate was composed of individuals who self-identified as born-again Christians or who claimed belief in the Armageddon. (Domke, 14) The belief of this interest group in biblical prophecy and end-times literature was clearly showcased in its attitudes toward United States foreign policy. Scholars argue that throughout the administration, Bush coded his public speeches to speak directly to this following, urging them to mobilize behind political initiatives that he framed as being in their religious interest.

University of Chicago religious historian Bruce Lincoln depicted one such attempt in his Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11, arguing that in an October 2001 speech in which the president introduced planned military retaliation to the terrorist attacks, the president’s word choice mimicked that of Osama Bin Laden, as “both men constructed a Manichaean struggle, where Sons of Light confront Sons of Darkness, and all must enlist on one side or the other, without possibility of neutrality, hesitation, or middle ground.” (Lincoln)

Further, he utilized metaphors from the revelation of St. John and Isaiah to hint to Christians that he subscribed to their personal spiritual beliefs. Lincoln uncovered similar coding in Bush’s 2004 acceptance of the Republican presidential nomination, where “Bush spoke of ‘hills to climb’ and ‘seeing the valley below,’ an allusion to Israel’s escape from slavery and Moses’s vision of the Promised Land as described in Deuteronomy 34.” (Lincoln)

Bush also “described losses overcome through ‘hope, steadfastness, and faith,’” in regards to the War on Terror and dampening economic climate, emphasizing their importance in his conclusion, where he “name[d] what he saw in them all. ‘For as long as our country stands,’ he proclaimed, ‘people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say, ‘here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.’” Lincoln further adds that Bush’s use of the word resurrection was no accident, but instead intended to impart biblical imagery. Further, Lincoln noted that Bush employed the phrase “I believe” no less than a dozen times, in some cases to “justify his wars as holy” and the will of God.


Lincoln was not the only theologian to recognize this style of coded speech: Appleby expressed concern that Bush’s mission of promulgating democracy throughout the Middle East represented a “theological version of Manifest destiny,” and David Domke, author of The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America, in a discourse that highlighted the use of religious imagery in presidential speeches from Eisenhower to Clinton, noted that while “Other presidents petitioned for blessings and guidance, Bush positions himself as a prophet, speaking for God.”


The purpose of this argument is not to criticize Bush as a president or policy maker: if one is interested in such arguments, like jeremiads against all previous presidents they are easily accessible and prolific in number, but lie outside the scope of this piece. These presidential tools are not unique to the Bush presidency. The American attention span can be difficult to attract and even more difficult to maintain, and all great orators employ certain techniques, like call and response, that are traditional to churches but of great use politically as Americans are predisposed to be receptive to the speech pattern. As Lincoln explained in an essay for The Christian Century, Assemblies of God minister and Republican political operative Doug Wead advised Bush 41 to “’signal early and signal often’… urging that the candidate’s speeches be larded with biblical allusions.” (Lincoln)

Clinton also relied heavily on biblical metaphor, but Lincoln’s larger argument explains that Bush 43 uses the technique as a political tool, not necessarily to express his own religious motivations. He does not necessarily consider himself to be on mission from God, but “if such things please you, he wants you to know that he thinks of himself as a faithful servant of Christ, and feels himself accountable to no law save God’s, no court save the Last Judgment. But if such things make you uneasy, he would prefer the question never arise…Bush employs biblical citation to communicate with his base, the linguistic equivalent of winks and nudges.” (Lincoln)

In other words, Bush framed his policies both foreign and domestic in a way that would mobilize his key interest group behind them, making them actionable and sustainable even though these policies were not necessarily designed with those interests in mind. One example, as Republican strategist Kevin Phillips points out in his American Theocracy, is oil-based foreign policy. Though the war in Iraq was acknowledged by high-ranking administration officials as having great potential benefit towards America’s oil-based future, it would be nearly impossible to mobilize Bush’s voting coalition behind such action as the 70 percent that self-identify as born again Christians or claim belief in the Armageddon believe oil to be directly linked to the antichrist and further believe that God provides all natural resources thus there can be no shortage.

In truth, Bush regularly expressed a Manichaean view of the world in which there was no obligation, political or otherwise, that could compete with the task of defeating evil. As Glenn Greenwald explained in an interview with Bill Moyers, “the idea of being a Manichaean comes from this third century BC philosophy that… understood the world [as] a never-ending battle between the forces of pure good and the forces of pure evil. And all human events could be understood … through that prism.” (Greenwald) Greenwald continues to explain that the philosophy was rejected even by early Christians as one that lacked cognizance of “the moral ambiguities” that prevail worldwide and dominate interpersonal and foreign relations. (Greenwald) Whether or not this worldview is one that Bush himself holds, it speaks directly to the beliefs of a large percentage of Americans who interpret current events through a filter of religious belief and a particular hermeneutical ability that predisposes them to dig beneath the rhetoric of political speech for deeper meaning.

The worldview and political power of this particular interest group is of extraordinary importance for a number of reasons. First, as Greenwald argued, while good and evil certainly exist, to frame one’s worldview on such a narrow and absolutist moral understanding may ultimately lead one to make questionable decisions, like mobilizing for armed conflict in Iraq. Further, such a worldview may lead one to justify the taking of actions that lie outside of his or her personal moral code -- like perhaps torture -- but that are taken in pursuit of the eradication of evil, which clearly sets a dangerous precedent.

Such a worldview also presents an unnecessary hindrance to political proceedings. In addition to an inability to process information contrary to religious framing -- a 2004 study by the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies showed that 75 percent of Bush supporters believed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was assisting al-Qaeda in acts of terrorism despite the widespread dissemination of contradictory official reports -- a belief in biblical inerrancy, particularly that of the book of Genesis, make it difficult to address political concerns like diminishing natural resources, impending global warming, and petroleum geology.(Edsall, 62)

It is not in the national political interest when government officials like Senator James Inhofe, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, contend that the Bible holds all answers. Instead they appear irrational and ludicrous as they cannot discuss or address impending challenges of vital importance.

Further, the religious right exerts great influence in questions of social policy. Their impact was perhaps most publicly noticeable in the Terri Schiavo proceedings, but they actively assert a particular vision of moral values, frequently promoting legislation against perceived immorality that is in obvious contradiction to the larger Republican political philosophy of smaller government and a hands-off approach to private relationships.

Still, this issue remains most important where issues of foreign policy are concerned. As this paper has determined, former military and economic world powers have set a precedent in which blind devotion and religious overreach factors into imperial decay, a notion which should concern American policy makers, particularly in a nuclear age where conflict between nations has the potential to exert much greater destruction and devastation than even the remarkably bloody religious wars of yore.

Works Cited

Dalrymple, Theodore. "Suicide of the West: Will America Follow Eurpoe into Anomie and Atheism?", The American Conservative, March 2010.

Domke, David. The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 2008.

Edsall, Thomas. Building Red America. Perseus Books, New York, 2006.

Goldberg, Michelle. "Fundamentally Unsound." Salon, July 29, 2002.e

Heyrmann, Christine. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt, Knopf, New York, 1997.

Kimball, Charles . When Religion Becomes Evil. HarperCollins, New York, 2008.

Lincoln, Bruce. Holy Terrors: Thinking About TReligion After September 11. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2003

Lincoln, Bruce. "Words Matter: How Bush Speaks in Religious Code." Boston Globe, September 12, 2004.

Lincoln, Bruce. "Bush's God Talk" the Christian Century, October 5, 2004.

Marty, Martin & R. Scott Appleby. Fundamentalisms Observed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1991.

Medved, Miochael. The Ten Big Lies About America: Combating Distortions About Our Nation.

Ortega, Tony. "Peace-monger." Phoenix New Times, February 13, 2003.

Phillips, Kevin. American Theocracy. Penguin Group, New York, 2006.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

On the dangers of signing Cliff Lee





Surely by now you have heard the big news of the day. Around midnight last night, the Phillies signed Cliff Lee to a five year deal worth $120 million. Lee, their former ace, is the biggest free agent signing of the hot stove season. He's a player just about everyone in the city has been pining for since he was traded to Seattle almost exactly one year ago.

Surely this is no time for complaining, right?

Okay, I agree. It's been a wild and wonderful ride today. And I don't mean to be one to spoil the party. But let's take stock of what kind of beast we are building and what kind of fans we are in danger of becoming. George Vecsey's column from today's New York Times makes a valid point worth mentioning.

Here's the line that hooked my attention:

"Remember when Phillies fans had a surly underdog mentality every time the Mets and their raffish fans came to town and took over their ballpark? Ha! That era is long gone, on both sides."

With the signing of Cliff Lee, the Phils become the pre-season prohibitive favorites to win the National League pennant and win another World Series. With such free agent signings come high expectations that are hard to fulfill. The Phillies have suddenly turned from being gallant hunters into prey. Worse yet, the team I have long rooted for have become as reviled by the New York Yankees. We are no longer rooting for lovable underdogs.

This paradigm shift will take some getting used to. And it worries me that so many of the young fans who crowd the Phillies' lovely ballpark have already been spoiled by this team and that they will turn on the team with a vengance if their expectations are not met. That's not a kind of fan I wish to associate myself with.

I have long taken pride in being a loyal Phillies fan. "Loyal" is the key word. I lived and died with the team, mostly died. Expectations were always high in April and rarely if ever did the team live up to my hopes for it.

I got to see two world championships during my 50-plus years on Earth and that's two more than Phillies fans got to see who supported the team all through those dismal and disasterous decades of the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s. Back then, the Phils were perennial basement dwellers and had become the franchaise with the most losses of any team in professional sports.

I often tell my students being a Phillies fan is my cross to bear in life. I tell them when I get to the gates of heaven, I am going defend a lifetime's pursuit of wine, women and song with just one lame excuse: "Please forgive me sir, I've been a life long fan of the Phillies" and that St. Pete would crack open the pearly gates and wave his arm into heaven and yell to the heavenly hosts: "Let him in, boys! He's suffered enough!!"

You can't buy that kind of Earthly penance. It has to be earned. Mine was. I suffered a lot. I lived through the collapse of '64 and sat in a left field seat at the Vet on Black Friday when Luzinski juggled a fly ball against the wall and the catastrophic disaster of '77 transpired. I fear the younger brethren amongst us will no longer get that free pass into heaven. They'll have to find another way in. They've been spoiled. And now, so have I.

Yes, today it feels good to be on top, it's a red-letter day to bleed red. But I have to wonder any more if I won't be spit upon the next time I wear my Phillies cap in Chicago. There's be a price to pay for the joys of today. And the bill is gonna be a steep one.


To read Vescey's column in its entirety, cut and paste this link into your web browser.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/sports/baseball/15vecsey.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Matthew Dowd's great column on Wikileaks






Now that Julian Assange has turned himself in, governments around the world can breath a huge sigh of relief because Enemy Number One, the first global outlaw since Deep Throat to raise the question of the nation's political malfeasance, is finally "under control."

Matthew Dowd's column on Wikileaks is pretty close to mine own take and well worth reading. (See link below) In short, he argues that governments are inherently self-serving; they don't care much about citizens, they care only about self-preservation.

Governments expect citizens to placidly go along with any searches for information they wish to conduct, regardless of whether they violate a citizen's right of privacy. Yet when a whistle blower like Assange shines a light on government corruption or ineptitude, using the same invasive tactics that governments now use spy on their own people, they express outraged. Isn't this just another example of hypocrisy?

Dowd's second point is worth thinking about, too: why doesn't the media support Wikileaks? Doesn't the press serve as a watchdog? Isn't it supposed to be in the business of exposing wrong-doing and corruption of people who wield power? Shouldn't they be serving their readers by making government more acountable and by exposing the truth? Why has there been a blanket of silence thrown over the media regarding the apprehension of Julian Assange? Why has the press allowed its corporate masters to perpetuate the government's lie that Assange is a traitor to Western ideas of democracy?



Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the mainstream media is firmly held by large corporations that prop up governments and help elect officials who put their corporate interests ahead of the people's inherent right to know the truth?

Read Dowd's column here for yourself if you have five minutes. And shake your head in disgust at what has happened to democracy. Where are the investigative reporters? You're more likely to find them on the internet these days than drawing paychecks from newspapers or serving as TV newscasters or foreign correspondents.

Assange is someone we should admire. He is the student standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Someday, he will be universally acclaimed as a hero of democracy, a gadfly of the first rank, as patriotic as Daniel Ellsberg.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/common-sense/maybe-the-government-would-earn-more-of-our-trust-if-it-invaded-our-privacy-less-20101202#comments

And for more commentary on how the media has abandoned its watchdog role in favor or cheering on the persecution of Assange, read this column from the Guardian's Simon Jenkins:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks

Monday, December 6, 2010

Follow the Daily Local News on Twitter


The Daily Local News has dozens of gift cards to Chester County restaurants and other local merchants that the newspaper is giving away just in time for the holiday season. All you have to do to have a chance to win is follow @wcdailylocal on twitter.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

2010: The Year in Recorded Music

2010 has been a vibrant year for pop music......reissues from classic rockers like The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen got most of the hype, for understandable reasons. The re-mixed release of the Stones' classic Exile on Main Street contained 10 songs culled from those recording sessions in France that were better than anything the band has released in two subsequent decades. And Springsteen's The Promise package contains a remastered version of his classic Darkness at the Edge of Town and 21 "new" songs that the Boss recorded during that fertile period of his life which didn't make the album.

Lady Gaga made headlines wearing a "meat dress" to a music awards show and sold millions of units, but got out-smarted and out-performed as the Queen of pop by Swedish star Robyn Carlsson, who is a far more interesting artist and took dance pop to glorious and frequently hilarious heights in her 2010 CD Body Works.

Since it's present-buying season and since music is "the gift that keeps on giving" all year long, consider this list of my favorite CDs of the year as recommendations for your holiday shopping. Such end-of-the-year lists have become de rigueur among music buffs in recent years and I like to indulge in the habit too with several good friends. Like all such lists, mine is subjective. But I have I hope it might reveal some pleasant surprises if you are a music fan like me.




1) Arcade Fire -- The Suburbs. When it came out this summer one friend told me the Arcade Fire had "become rock stars" with the release of this record. It was a savvy assessment of the band's new ascendance. Songwriter Win Butler shows a deft take on the American zeitgeist in these 15 songs, not one of which is a clunker. They skate delicately over issues both personal and political. They capture the ennui and soullessness of modern American life in a way that few other Americans artists would dare attempt. The Suburbs careens effortlessly from thoughtful, yearning folk to anthemic rock in all its glorious bombast. The rough edges that made their initial effort (Funeral) so enthralling have been chiseled off. What remains is a band working at its creative peak, a gleaming, burning machine. It reminds me of the Clash's London Calling in its reach for greatness. Its release was an instant classic that puts Arcade Fire in a class by itself. "Month of May" rocked harder than any song I heard all year.





2) Jamey Johnson -- The Guitar Song -- This double CD of classic country tunes was one of the most ambitious albums of the year. When was the last time a country artist released two CDs at once? It's unheard of. Yet the 25 songs here are strong enough to stand the test of releasing this much material all at once. Years from now The Guitar Song may be seen as a classic of traditional country music and Johnson's grasp for the brass ring. I would not classify myself as a fan of the genre, but I couldn't stop listening to it and I never stopped enjoying it. If you have country fans in your family, you'll make them happy if this one is in their Christmas stockings. Here's a small excerpt from the All Music Guide review of this terrific collection: "The Guitar Song is uncompromising. Johnson's own accomplished road band -- consisting of players symbiotically sympathetic to the material -- provides the backing, and he gives his musicians room to really play, whether it's honky tonk Southern rock or bedroom or back porch ballads. The sound is rougher edged than contemporary country; it comes from the Waylon Jennings/Hank Jr./David Allan Coe era. It rocks but it also rolls."



3) Band of Horses -- Infinite Arms. Few bands wear their influences on their sleeves as proudly or proficiently as Band of Horses from Seattle. Their shimmering, chiming guitars and lilting harmonies are not just throwbacks to the Roger McGuinn/Gene Clark era of the Byrds, they take that template for folk-rock to new heights and turn it into a signature sound of their own. Ben Bridwell is the primary singer/songwriter of the band, but his plaintive singing is exquisitely supported by new band members Tyler Ramsey and Ryan Monroe. Echoes of another California band, The Beach Boys, are all over this CD, too. Here's All Music Guide's assessment: "the album's willingness to sample from so many different genres -- roots, soft rock, alt.country, power pop, indie folk -- makes it sound like nothing else in 2010, and Band of Horses connect the dots by layering everything with canyon worthy reverb and cinematic guitars. For those who let it sink in, Infinite Arms could be a contender for the year's best album." Highlights include two plaintive, effortless love songs, the title track and "On My Way Back Home" and one amazing rocker, "N.W. Apt."



4) Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate -- Ali & Toumani. Regrettably, this is going to be the last time one of Ali Farka Toure's CDs makes my year-end list. The masterful guitarist from Mali passed away in 2006. His first collaboration with Diabate (In the Heart of the Moon) was released back in 2005, and was justifiably praised by critics and world music fans. This one was recorded in London in four days, just months before Toure died of cancer. It's his last release and a fitting tribute to the friendship and incredible musical bond he formed with Diabate. Toure's understated but gorgeous guitar picking is beautifully and attentively accentuated by Diabate's playing on kora, an African stringed instrument. They are joined on half of the album's songs by Cuban bassist Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez. The intricate, rhythmic interplay of the three instruments is mesmerizing and seductive in its simplicity and beauty.





5) The National -- High Violet. Back in June, when I gave my "mid-year report" on the year's best CDs, this is what I said about High Violet, then my favorite record of 2010: "Hardly any pop bands feature baritone singers these days, so Matt Berninger's vocals give the National a distinct, unique sound. This is their most mature effort.... it may not jump right out of your speakers, but give it time. This one mellows like a fine cabernet and will grow on you as time goes on." I stand by that statement. The record sounded great in May and it still sounds great. "Bloodbuzz, Ohio" shows the band has an aptitude for crafting great singles, too, a skill it needs to refine and develop if it wants to break out of the alternative box many critics have put it in and climb into the mainstream.




6) Mumford & Sons -- Sigh No More. Mumford & Sons was my favorite new band of the year. They are Great Britain's answer to the Avett Brothers and they plough the same fertile territory of hillbilly folk-rock played with a punk aesthetic. I caught a mid-summer show at the TLA on South Street in Philly that was packed to the rafters. Their soaring harmonies were even more impressive in live performance than on this album. The songs seemed designed to be performed live because they're structured around a simple idea: they start out slowly and build to a rousing crescendo that is supported by thumping, stringed instruments and blaring, brass. Songs to download: "I Gave You My All", "Thistle and Weeds" and "White Blank Page." If you like the Avetts, you'll love their British cousins, the Mumfords.




7) School of Seven Bells -- Disconnect From Desire. My son says LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy has a harder edge than School of Seven Bells. And Murphy's "Drunk Girls" was a hilarious rave-up that was one of my favorite songs of the year. But for my money, this electronic-beat CD was the better album. Ben Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines) has teamed up with twin sister vocalists Claudia and Alejandra Deheza to create a stunning pastiche of dance pop songs. Great beats, soaring vocals and swirling synth riffs makes this one fairly irresistible. The disc starts out with three barn burners, "Windstorm", "Heart is Strange" and "Dust Devil" and then it's off to the races for one glorious, relentless ride. If you were a fan of Annie Haslem during her stint with Renaissance, you'll dig this one.



8) Beach House -- Teen Dream. Dreamy, blissed out folk pop by two of the most innovative musicians working in America today, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand (the niece of French composer Michel Legrand). Chiming guitars fit hand in hand with rippling keyboard riffs while a drum machine adds tasteful taps and tics that unscore Legrand's penchant for writing musical reveries. Scally supports Legrand's dreamy vocals with deft, delicate soundscapes. Lyrically, this CD contains some of Legrand's most clear-eyed glances at the fragility of human relationships. "Wry and enough to know better than idealizing love, and romantic enough to still believe in it" is how one critic eloquently put it. This one may seem slight to people who like their music to rock, but its haunting beauty will linger for days if you gravitate to atmospheric pop. Some songs to hear first are: "Zebra," "Norway" and "Real Love."



9) Ike Reilly -- Hard Luck Stories. Like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, the main appeal of Ike Reilly's songs are the vivid images they paint in your mind and the sense of humor they display. He sings his songs with a world-weary rasp and the same kind of untapped urgency that the young Springsteen brought to life with songs like "Rosalita" and "Blinded by the Light." Reilly's songs can barely contain the ideas they are expressing without overloading the whole works. They are backed by a roaring, road-hardened rock band, highlighted by a Farfisa organ and Ike's wailing harmonica playing. "Good Work" was my favorite song of the year, a hilarious romp that winks at high school graduation "after after party parties" and the party animals who attend them. Despite his acerbic theatrics, Reilly made the most raucous blues-based album of the year.


10) Janelle Monae -- The ArchAndroid. If this album represents the future of urban contemporary R&B, and I suspect it does, count on it to be both challenging and danceable. It's hard to put Monae's debut into any one catagory. It careens all over the musical map, from classical suites to soul rave-ups to prog rock heavyweights that would make fans of Emerson, Lake and Palmer take note. "Cold War" and "Tightrope" will rock the house down. Meanwhile, a futuristic saga of epic proportions (which takes more than a few listens to comprehend and unravel) turns the record into a soul opera worthy of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic records. Monae makes a strong case as an artist to watch carefully.

Other 2010 releases that nearly made the cut, in alphabetical order: Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love; Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes, Double Portrait; The Chieftains, San Patrico; Freelance Whales, Weathervanes; The Gaslight Anthem, American Slang; Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, I Learned the Hard Way; LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening; Robyn, Body Works; Spoon, Transference; Richard Thompson, Dream Attic.

Three terrific albums I can unequivocally recommend that were released with sonic extras: The Blue Shadows, On the Floor of Heaven; The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street; Bruce Springsteen, Darkness at the Edge of Town/The Promise.