I've seen the future, and it's amazing

A jaunt to the outer East of Melbourne to catch up with a friend yesterday led me, on the way home, to Blackburn, not a place that I'm especially fond of, but the home of Koorong Books and Music - a shop, for those of you not in the know, that sells a range of Christian books, music, and merchandise of varying quality. It's pretty rare for me to find anything there that I feel especially inspired to buy, particularly in the music department, and yet it's perhaps equally rare for me to find good Christian music outside of Koorong. So, every few months, I like to go there when I am in the area and see what is available.

I was just beginning to despair on the state of Christian music - it's a bit of a routine of mine at Koorong, but a feeling that I think was this time most inspired by a CD that professed to be for fans of "Switchfoot, The Fray and Ryan Adams"; now, how can a band possibly sound like all those artists, without being simultaneously wonderful and utterly MOR? - when I came across a gem from the almost infallible Seattle indie-CCM label, Tooth and Nail, an unheard-of 2007 release, "Love Is For the Rich", by a band called Surrogate. The little sticker on the cover told me that this band, unlike my earlier discovery, was for fans of Sun Kil Moon, the Red House Painters and Pinback. Now, it's rare enough for not one but two Mark Kozalek projects to be mentioned with reference to a Christian CD, and Pinback have won me over whenever I've heard them, so I was instantly sold; as was the CD, by the time I took it to the counter.

Several listens yesterday and today have confirmed the wisdom of my purchase. There are more than enough quality indie reference points with an album like this - aside from the very accurate descriptions on the cover sticker, there are definite hints of early Death Cab For Cutie, Say Hi To Your Mom, and even a few moments of a Northern Californian Phoenix (if you can imagine what that sounds like). The lyrics are far from preachy; in fact, they are quite enigmatic. Rather, this CD reminds me, if I needed any reminding, of what makes Tooth and Nail the prince among Christian music labels; they produce quality alternative music that simply talks about the world from a Christian viewpoint. Tooth and Nail bands rarely aim to convert all their listeners. However, being Christians, they want to be honest about how they see life. So Christianity comes through in the way they talk about the world. A wonderful example of this is the wry and catchy "Death Penalty", which talks nonchalantly about the singer's less-than-perfect past but looks forward to a wonderful future in Heaven. There's also the less optimistic but equally godly anthem about climate change, "Stay Out of the Sun", which is a simple but compelling listen, and definitely the best environmentalist indie-pop song of 2007.

What my favourite Tooth and Nail bands understand is that you don't have to be singing "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs to be creating meaningful, Christian art. They get the Christian perspective out there, in a way that people may actually be able to listen to without feeling completely alienated.

They often also aim to make wonderful music, which I figure has to be important, although not everyone would agree with me. Thankyou Surrogate, for not disappointing. I suspect you'll stay stuck in my CD player for a few more days yet.