ALBUM REVIEW: "Relatives In Descent" by Protomartyr

Protomartyr songs often don't contain a clear beginning, middle and end, and this disregard for standard form or structure made the band's fourth album Relatives In Descent daunting and impenetrable for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but this isn't necessarily an entertaining album as such - you don't put these songs on a playlist, you don't put the album on at a dinner party, you don't casually listen to it. It asks to be explored and worked at over time, to be experienced rather than listened to. Lyrically this album is a whole lot to take in, and impossible to fully understand, I suspect. Not really for me, to be honest, but this blend of spiralling post-punk and poetic dirges into depressive passages certainly has my appreciation and respect. I guess the word I would give to my experience of this album is oppressive - it only runs for about 43 minutes, but that time seemed to crawl by.

Rating: C

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A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal ...

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