Blutree - Kingdom

This is a review of Bluetree's second album, Kingdom.  I reviewed their first album here, nearly 4 years ago. I heaped praise on it and expected great things (pun intended) of this band.  It has been quite a wait for the second album.
Briefly, song by song...
1.  Glorious Victorious.  A strong opener.  Upbeat and rocky, a good tune.  Lyrics range from strong but unoriginal to a bit lazy really.
2.  You Were You Are.  A bit weaker.  Similar in style to track one.  Again, unoriginal in lyrics and with one particularly poor line, but a very strong tune.  Easy to listen to.

3.  It Is Finished.  The 97 second intro takes over a minute to get going.  Reasonable lyrics but again, nothing new or original.  Music is ok but a bit...nothingy.
4.  Exalt Him.  More interesting music, though still in a very similar style to the first two tracks.  Lyrically, still fairly standard stuff.  Not bad, just not that interesting.
5.  Destined to Reign.  More interesting themes, but a bit mixed up.  Lots of Christian-sounding words, but not saying that much for most of the song.  Musically more interesting, but a bit of an annoying riff.
6.  Jesus Healer.  Some of the strongest lyrics on the album.  Not outstanding, but better than most of the rest.  Music is pretty strong too.  Catchy.
7.  Shine.  Features Martin Smith, and you can tell.  Sounds Deliriousy, but takes a long time (over 3 minutes) to really get going.  More unique lyrics than most of the other songs.
8.  You Are My Rock.  Even the title sounds cliched.  Again, takes a while to get going, and isn't particularly interesting for the whole six minutes plus.  Doesn't do anything wrong, just doesn't do much right.
9.  Rest.  Almost a carbon copy of track eight.  Not sure which is better.  Similar themes, similar lengths, similar structures, similar songs.
10.  Lightens Up.  Ooh, hello electronica.  This is new, this is interesting, this is exciting.  This song is fresher and more original, both musically and lyrically.  Possibly my favourite on the album.
11.  Under My Feet.  They tried a dance track.  It didn't really work.  The weakest track on the album.

Overall thoughts?  Musically, the album is decent.  Easy to listen to, catchy, memorable.  Lyrically, cliched is the best word.  Not all the time, but a lot of the time.  Compared to Greater Things, this is where Kingdom really lets itself down.  There is nothing on the level of Life's Noise, Burn Me Up or God Of This City.  Nothing is even close.  This is not a bad album.  It's not even necessarily much worse than Greater Things, which did have its weak points.
Could they still be the new Delirious?  Yet, but they'll need to produce the third album more quickly than the second, and it will need to be fresher, more unique, more interesting.  Kingdom isn't bad, it's just very normal.

Twitter

I recently joined Twitter.  I know I am late.  I didn't join earlier because I didn't see the point.  I thought I'd join to see if it made more sense from the inside.  I still don't really get it.

It seems that Twitter is mainly like Facebook status updates, which, just like on Facebook, can develop into conversations with people.  The problems I have with this are that (a) Facebook does this already, and (b) most things people post are of no interest to me (just like on Facebook).

One extra thing Twitter offers is the ability to follow people I don't personally know, like celebrities.  I've tried this, but have only found one (Opta Sports) that interests me.

Another problem with Twitter is that I get loads of stuff on my feed (mainly from retweeting), and it is difficult to filter out the one or two interesting things from the masses of junk.

In terms of tweeting myself, I don't see the point yet.  I rarely have anything interesting to say that I can say in 140 characters or less.  If I do, I can put it on Facebook.  Facebook has the advantage of having other uses such as photos and events.

The one thing that Twitter seems to have that is not accomplished by either blogging or Facebook is hashtags.  During June Project (our church's annual community festival) it was good to use #jp12 to see what was going on round the city.  But this advantage doesn't outweigh all the faff of trawling through masses of Tweets to find something interesting that I spend most of my Twitter-time doing.

The obvious solution to all this would be to just follow Opta Sports and no-one else.  But that seems a waste of what many people have assured me is an excellent communication method.

So, what am I missing?  Where is my understanding flawed?  What advice do you have for me?

Honour Spotlight: Fay Townsend

A friend of mine, Ellie Jackson, occasionally posts articles on her blog called Honour Spotlights.  I thought I'd give it a go.

This Honour Spotlight is for Fay Townsend.  Fay is an absolute hero.  She is an intern at our church and I have the privilege of leading a student pastorate group with her.  She brings so much to the team.  She strikes the perfect balance between humourous banter and serious planning and prayer, keeping the rest of us on track.  She has a way of noticing things that I don't, and then when she says them, I think 'genius'.  She is wonderfully encouraging, and in a genuine and non-patronising way.  She always takes opportunities to congratulate and thank people.  She has led pastorate meetings with skill, insight and wisdom beyond her years.
Fay also organises all the administration for pastorate - sending emails, putting people into cells, keeping everything ticking over.  If something needs doing, Fay not only can do it, she does do it.  Miss Super-reliable.  This is a huge blessing.




As well as being, well, awesome, Fay is just...fun.  I know that's an awful word but it's a true one to use.  Fay is up for stuff.  She'll make a fool of herself, she'll get involved in whatever's going on, she'll go to girly nights and play football with the lads.  She'll watch films, go to the beach, play Catan (or any other game).  She'll make fun of herself and other people, and she is a great host.

Fay makes people feel valued.  She gives up her time for people, she listens to people, she serves people.  She has a care and concern for people that inspires and challenges me.

Fay is one of the people about whom I can genuinely say I am gutted to have not met her before I did.  I've known her for less than a year but have come to massively respect her in that short time.  A true legend and a blessing in my life.

Dancing part 3

Following two previous posts on dancing, it is time for a third.  Some more thoughts, following a recent wedding and a party with a live band.  Some of these thoughts overlap with the previous two posts.

First thought:
People seem to have very little idea of what they mean when they talk about dancing in a live band concert (e.g. at a party or a wedding).  Sometimes the meaning is clear, such as at a ceilidh or barn dance, because there are specific steps and moves to the dance and everyone does the same thing.  However, when this is not the case, definitions are loose.  If I am not dancing, people often ask why, and encourage me to join in, as if everyone else in the room is dancing.  But looking around the room from the edge, it is very common that the majority of people are not dancing for much of the time.  Instead, they are talking, or just standing.  Sometimes they dance.  Then they stop for a while.  To be honest, my head-nods or foot-taps from the back of the room can be more active than some of the 'dancers' on the 'dance floor'.  It seems that when people refer to dancing, they are more concerned about location in the room (on the dance floor as opposed to at the back/edge.sitting down) than the actual activity taking place.

Second thought.
Many people who dance to live bands really do not look like they enjoy it.  They just look awkward.  Not all, but many.  I am confused as to why they try so often to do something that they do not enjoy.

Third thought:
Some reasons why I don't often dance to live music.
1.  I don't always like the music (as briefly discussed in the original Dancing post).
2.  Even when I do like the music it is often the case that I'd theoretically be up for dancing for about one song in four and often I can't be bothered to go and dance for one song only to stop for three.  I'd rather just watch the band.
3.  As evidenced by three posts (and counting), I have thought about this quite a lot, and I generally don't like to get involved in something until I have thought it through.  Therefore part of the reason I don't often dance is because I haven't completely thought through what I think of this sort of dancing.
4.  People often repeatedly ask me to dance, sometimes even trying to physically force me to do so.  This makes me angrier than people realise.  I question what makes people think they have the right to try to physically drag someone into doing something they don't want to do, or even to repeatedly badger them about it.  So another part of the reason is to make a stand against this behaviour.

Album titles

I recently bought The Temper Trap's second album entitled, confusingly and disappointingly 'The Temper Trap'.
I find it disappointing because it's just unimaginative and uncreative.  I find it confusing because now, if someone refers to 'The Temper Trap', it is unclear if they are talking about the band in general or the album specifically.
Other bands that I like who have committed this crime include Casting Crowns, Franz Ferdinand, Jars of Clay, The Kissaway Trail, The Libertines, Lifehouse, Sixpence None the Richer, Sonicflood, and Stellastarr*.  British Sea Power almost did it, with 'The Decline of British Sea Power', as did The Rock'n'Roll Worship Circus, with 'Welcome to the Rock'n'roll Worship Circus'
The most disappointing of these was Lifehouse's third album.  After the wonderfully named No Name Face (greatest album ever) and equally wonderfully named Stanley Climbfall (not too far behind), Lifehouse (the third album, not the band) was not of the same standard and also had a disappointing and confusing name.  Insult to injury.

Phatfish - In the beginning

I quite like Phatfish.  They've written some really good stuff and are decent live performers.  I've listened to their music for over a decade.  A few weeks ago I saw them at Spring Harvest.  It was mostly a good gig, but one song in particular drove me up the wall.  It's called In The Beginning.

I can't find the lyrics online but as far as I can tell they go like this:

You’ve got Dawkins standing on a pedestal

Shouting at the creatures God is dead

You’ve got people thinking that they’re scientists

All agree the notion God’s not there

But please tell me in this theory

Explain how life ever first began

Could such genius precise details

Just appear without a master plan?

In the beginning God

In the beginning God created

Life exploded

In the beginning

You’ve got people telling us the science deal

Answering the questions, hows and whys

You’ve got mockers scoffing at the Bible

Thinking they are smart and faith is blind

But the leap is so much greater

To think chance is alone responsible

When I’m faced with love and beauty

There’s just one explanation plausible

In the beginning God

In the beginning God created

Life exploded

In the beginning

Right at the start there was the word

And the word was with God

Right at the start the word was God

Yes the word was with God

And through him everything was made

Nothing made without him

In him was life and that’s the life

That’s the life I’m wanting

This song makes me angry.  Not just because I disagree that science and Christianity are as opposed as the song suggests.  Not just because the lyrics suggest that you can't believe the Bible and agree with evolution.  Not just because the song is critical of scientists like myself.  Though these reasons alone would wind me up.

It's because it's by Phatfish.  One of the longest-standing Christian bands we have in Britain, and one of the most popular.  They should know better than to write a song about such a divisive issue from such an extreme standpoint.  Not only could this song alienate Christians who accept evolution, like myself.  Not only could it confirm the fears of well-meaning but confused Christians who don't know enough about evolution but suspect it might be against Christianity (it isn't, but the way).

Songs like this could alienate other people from even giving faith a chance.  This song presents Christians as paranoid fundamentalists who feel threatened by evil scientists.  Some research has suggested that one of the most significant things that prevents young people from becoming Christians is the perceived dichotomy between science and Christianity.  Regardless of the personal views of Phatfish on evolution, they should know better than to write a song that could present an extreme viewpoint as a middle-of-the-road one.

Encores

Does anyone else get a bit annoyed with encores?  They're just so contrived.  The band go off, the lights stay low, no-one moves, people shout and clap, and the band come back on to play songs that everyone knew they were going to play, because they include the bands biggest hit, and the band planned them into the setlist before the gig.
I wish we could have real encores.  Where the band play their whole set as planned and then they go off and the lights come up.  If it has been a particularly impressive show, or if the crowd are particularly partisan, they shout for more and the band reappear and play a song that they've already played because they hadn't planned an encore.

Olympic Sports

I've been saying for a while now that the only sports allowed at the Olympics should be those sports for which the highest honour or achievement is the Olympic Gold medal.  Therefore sports such as athletics, swimming, judo, canoeing, gymnastics should be Olympic Sports.  Sports such as football and tennis should not.  In football, the World Cup is the highest achievement.  In tennis, it is the four majors of Wimbledon, French Open, US Open and Australian Open.
Steve Cram wrote about this today.  I share his concerns.

The Middle-Earth Eagle Postal Service...or not

This is a question which I’ve been asked many times, and have got bored of explaining.  It came up again a few days ago so I thought I’d write about it, so that next time someone asks, I can say the wonderful line ‘I refer you to my blog’.

The question is: “In The Lord of the Rings, why didn’t the eagles fly the ring to Mordor?”

The answers are multiple.

Firstly, as Gwaihir (King of the Eagles) himself says in Fellowship part 2 chapter 2 (The Council Of Elrond), the eagles were “sent to bear tidings not burdens”.  The eagles had been ‘devised’ by Manwe, one of the Valar (a former race living in the world of middle earth), in the First Age (LOTR taking place at the end of the Third Age).  They were spies and messengers, not transportation.

Although Gwaihir carried Gandalf a few times, that was on the level of a personal favour, and only over short distances.

On a more practical note, the whole point of taking the ring on foot was to keep the mission as secret as possible.  Had Gandalf, or anyone, attempted to take the ring on an Eagle, it would have been seen easily by Sauron and/or the Nazgul, and would have been taken out with arrows or fell beasts.

Some people have suggested that the eagles would have succumbed to the temptation of the ring and not delivered it to Mount Doom – possibly true, but as far as I can tell, we are not told enough about the eagles to know if this is correct or not.

Having said all that, it is probably significant that Tolkien doesn’t discuss the eagle possibility at any point.  Various other plans are suggested and dismissed, all with good reason.  The eagle plan is not mentioned at all.  This suggests that Tolkien probably didn’t think of it.  Yes, even Father Tolkien forgot something.  Fantasy is a very hard genre to write.

But even given this, the above reasons hopefully explain that, even if Tolkien had thought of the idea, he would easily have been able to write a logical argument as to why it would clearly not have been an option for the Fellowship.

Delirious song ranking

It's nice having the Easter holidays to do geeky things.  Yesterday, Chris Morgan and I decided to independently rank all songs by Delirious on their main 7 studio albums, and then compare our opinions.  To clarify, we were ranking songs from King of Fools, Mezzamorphis, Glo, Audio Lessonover, World Service, Mission Bell and Kingdom of Comfort.  We included songs from both UK and US versions of Audio Lessonover.  This gave us a total of 88 songs.
Here are our lists.

Rank	Ben	Chris
1	My Glorious	My Glorious
2	Investigate	Investigate
3	White ribbon day	Heaven
4	Heaven	God in Heaven
5	God is smiling	God is Smiling
6	History maker	Here I am Send Me
7	Mountain's High	Miracle Maker
8	Alien	Rain Down
9	Deeper	Promise
10	The years go by	History Maker
11	God you are my God	God's Romance
12	King or cripple	Feel it Coming on
13	Jesus blood	White Ribbon Day
14	Inside outside	Love will find a Way
15	God in heaven	Deeper
16	Revival town	God You are my God
17	Love will find a way	Mountains High
18	God's Romance	All this time
19	Take me away	Touch
20	Feel it coming on	Take me away
21	Everything	Awaken the dawn
22	Rain down	Love is the compass
23	Promise	Grace like a river
24	Wonder	Hallelujah
25	Awaken the dawn	Jesus' blood
26	Miracle maker	Hang on to You
27	Hang on to you	Wonder
28	Bliss	Show me Heaven
29	Our God reigns	Stare the Monster Down
30	Touch	Bliss
31	Here I am send me	Sanctify
32	Sanctify	Love falls down
33	With you	With You
34	Follow	King or Cripple
35	Eagle rider	Fires Burn
36	Fires Burn	Break the Silence
37	King of fools	Majesty
38	It's ok	Follow
39	Love falls down	Paint the Town Red
40	Majesty	Inside Outside
41	The mezzanine floor	Everything
42	Metamorphis	Waiting for the Summer
43	August 30th	Fire
44	Every little thing	Give what you got
45	Break the silence	King of Fools
46	A little love	Solid Rock
47	America	Revival Town
48	Mothers of the night	Now is the Time
49	Hallelujah	Our God Reigns
50	All this time	Mezzanine Floor
51	Now is the time	Alien
52	Paint the town red	Mothers of the Night
53	Stare the monster down	The Years go by
54	Show me heaven	Kingdom of Comfort
55	Solid rock	See the star
56	Waiting for the summer	Every Little Thing
57	Kingdom of comfort	August 30th
58	Give what you've got	Angel in Disguise
59	Grace like a river	Gravity
60	See the star	Take off my shoes
61	Love is the compass	My Soul Sings
62	Fire	Rollercoaster
63	Louder than the radio	Metamorphis
64	Gravity	Eagle Rider
65	Free	We give you Praise
66	All the way	Free
67	Angel in disguise	Intimate Stranger
68	My soul sings	All the Way
69	What a friend I've found	It's OK
70	Everyone knows	What a friend
71	Hands of kindness	Stronger
72	Stronger	There is an angel
73	Rollercoaster	Blindfold
74	I was blind	All God's Children
75	We give you praise	I was blind
76	Intimate stranger	What would I have done
77	Take off my shoes	A little love
78	Love is a miracle	Hands of Kindness
79	All God's children	Kiss your feet
80	What would I have Done	Louder than the Radio
81	Kiss your feet	Everyone knows
82	Beautiful Sun	America
83	There is an angel	How sweet the name
84	I'll see you	I'll See You
85	How sweet the name	Beautiful Sun
86	Blindfold	Love is a miracle
87	Bicycle gasoline	Bicycle Gasoline
88	Stealing time	Stealing time

As you can see, we agree on the top 2 and bottom 2, and coincidentally placed some other songs together.  Our biggest disagreements were with Alien, The Years go By, Inside Outside and Grace like a River.

I decided to give each song points based on position, so My Glorious scored 88 and Stealing Time scored 1.  I then averaged the scores for each album and produced the following graph.  The letters at the bottom represent the seven albums but they are small.  The order, from left to right, is King of Fools, Mezzamorphis, Glo, Audio Lessonover, World Service, Mission Bell, Kingdom of Comfort.

As expected, Glo is the clear leader, with 9 of its 11 songs appearing in the top 27.  Surprisingly, King of Fools outscored World Service - the lower and middle sections of each album scored similarly, but the best songs on King of Fools outscores the best of World Service.  Kingdom of Comfort and Mezzamorphis were neck and neck, while Mission Bell suffered from having no songs in the top 25.  The pre-race outsider, Audio Lessonover, predictably came last, though Alien did manage a top-10 place.

As a final disclaimer, it should be noted that the above album ranking based based on scores for isolated songs, which is not a particularly valid way of ranking albums!