BitterSweetLife

Bright Eyes' latest album, Cassadaga, has been out for a couple of weeks now, which means you can buy it now without looking like a feverish groupie. I love Conor Oberst's lyrics (if you swear that there's no truth, who cares/why do you say it like you're right?) and innovative folk rock, if not the angry politics that appear now and then. I'm hoping to pick up a copy to celebrate the demise of my final exams later this week.



1. On a slightly related note, I finally got around to listening to the iTunes free single of the week from about a month ago, "The Guide," by Borne, and promptly deleted it. In the course of the song, the new girlfriend wins the appellations: "angel, guiding light, Jesus, savior, all that is love." When idolatry becomes that blatant (not to mention soap-opera-esque) it ceases to be interesting. My idol-factory has advanced beyond that level. Give me a little more nuance, a little more sophistication, and then I'll identify.

2. On another slightly related note (finals make me less, not more, lucid), I was wondering--having just read the psalmist's take on vintage idols--what more evolved forms of idolatry will do to you. Now that I think about it, the fate of the idol worshiper is going to remain the same, even if the idol is living, breathing, feminine. Which is to say, even if your idol is human, you'll end up like the old-school, classic idols of the past--that is, with unseeing eyes, non-hearing ears, non-feeling hands. While it worked out in a spectacular way for the psalmist's parallelism, this threat is ominous for run-of-the-mill idolaters. Borne, are you listening?

OK, that's all for now.