Why so downcast?

There are a couple of reasons to be excited about the new Sons of Korah album.

1. The Melbourne outfit, specialising in setting the Biblical Psalms to music, have not released an album since 2005. They've just done a lot of live shows, which have been great, but, as any Sufjan Stevens fan will know, an awesome live show is still no substitute for an awesome new album. The same goes for Sons of Korah.

2. Their albums - fairly prolific from 1999 to 2002 then disappearing until 2005 - have continued to get better and better. Although few songs ever compare to the heart-wrenching closer to 2001's "Shelter" ("The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart"), the consistency and variety of 2002's "Redemption Songs" and 2005's "Resurrection" were unparalleled in their earlier efforts. So, if they continued to develop as those albums promised they would, 2008's "Rain" was sure to be their best so far.

And the good news? "Rain" is brilliant.

My brother always complained that, where the Psalms themselves vary dramatically in style and mood, Sons of Korah's renditions always sounded a bit too "sameish" to really reflect the emotional tenor of their source material. That, of course, is a complaint that isn't really justified by close listening. On the surface, much of what they do sounds "nice", but closer listens reveal much emotional tension and diversity. They've also covered a very wide range of styles across their previous albums, although always working within an organic and essentially "folky" (and thus fairly timeless) framework. Nevertheless, "Rain" does away with all such complaints altogether. When the Psalmists despair, so does the music. When they fume with anger, the music fumes. There's an experimental spirit here that has always been in Rod Gear's work but has not always pervaded the music that he and Matt Jacoby have produced together. Here that spirit is given full reign. And, when the Psalmist calls on God to break the jaw of his enemies, the eery double vocal overlay captures that feeling with frightening immediacy. It may not be the most loving of emotions, but still one that most people who have ever had an enemy can relate to.

I have long felt that the Psalms should be the fundamental framework for all Christian art. There's emotional complexity here that most Christian music or literature is just crying out for. The Psalmists don't apologise for their emotions. They don't go in for any of the "serenity now" crap that too many Christians think is Biblical and not, in fact, from "Seinfeld". They say when they feel bad. They say when they doubt, or feel distant from God, or don't know what to believe anymore. And yet they always find hope. And yet? No, it isn't in spite of their openness. It's because. They bring themselves to God as they are, and the healing that results is impossible to achieve otherwise.

I'm delighted that "Rain", more than any of the previous Sons of Korah albums, fully captures that emotional spectrum, and the catharsis the album achieves is consequently far greater than before. And they've even saved some of my favourite Psalms for this album, and many Psalms that have been great comforts to me in the past few months. Set to music, as they were always intended to be, those Psalms are now still more comforting.

But still no Psalm 23. When, I wonder, will they do that one?

Hot hot heat

Oppressive heat has interesting results. It boils brains; it makes everyone flustered; it unifies everyone with the observation of, "It's so hot" (not that it needs to be said). It also makes us feel as if there is some great injustice going on, that we are forced to live through such conditions, even work.

I have had the great (mis)fortune of returning to work right at the beginning of the heat wave. The worst, they say, in 100 years. So hopefully we won't have to endure it again in 100 years - or perhaps not?

Saunas, they say, are good for you because, among other things, they purify us. And how do they do this? They bring all impurities to the surface.

Yes, this is a kind of sauna. We're living in a sauna. Perhaps, instead of complaining, we should try to live with it. Who knows what the results would be.

Ideas From the South (Island)

So Ideas From the North will be going on holiday again for a couple of weeks - not that you'd notice, because I've hardly been prolific in my blogging in recent weeks. But now I'm off for some camping, hiking and general sightseeing in the South Island of New Zealand. It's over ten years since I last went there, and was only 13 then, so it will be interesting to revisit old haunts, maybe see some new places.

I'm prepared, of course, to be quite dead at the end of the 4-day Routeburn Track hike, but hope to resurrect in time to write some thoughts/insights/rambles when I return. I'm expecting the whole trip to be a little easier than China at least. After all, they do speak the same language as us, just with a few funny vowels.

Who we won't be seeing on the red carpet

2008 was a pretty good year for movies, which means that my glance over the Golden Globe nominations for this year involved less annoyance and/or confusion than usual. Of course, there are always a fair number of films listed that haven't come out in Australia yet, or that have only just come out, and then the handful that are possibly quite good but I just have no interest in seeing. All this put together means that, in a number of cases, I just can't comment on how well-deserved the nominations are (although my cynicism does kick in with certain obvious choices - "Revolution Road" anyone?).

There were a few, though, that I was very happy to see listed - Danny Boyle's latest triumph, "Slumdog Millionaire", which, a few years ago, would have been my idea of a perfect film: a Danny Boyle movie set in India. And it was pretty close to perfect. There was also David Fincher's most recent offering, the odd, imperfect but dazzling "Benjamin Button" which stayed in my head for some time after seeing it. Nominations like this are so clearly well-deserved and completely unsurprising. Both films have been very well-received and are already in IMDB's Top 100 - which simply means a lot of immediate hype and excitement, but I suspect they'll both be stayers. Though I might be wrong.

I was also happy to see that one of the absolute highlights of the year for me, Ari Folman's animated documentary "Waltz With Bashir", got a guernsey for Best Foreign Film. The Foreign Film category has always allowed scope for odd, eccentric and arty films, and "Bashir" is all of these, as well as deeply, deeply disturbing. It got nominated, but it almost certainly won't win. They'll give it to something more inspiring - though another highlight of my '08 viewing, "The Counterfeitors", managed to win the Foreign Film Oscar last year, despite being far from inspiring. There's hope, I suppose.

Of course, you can't expect the Globes to really reflect the state of cinema. How they nominate what they nominate remains a mystery to me. The Oscars, of course, are notorious for the "campaigns" that they expect f0r films to be nominated. The wonderful Hal Hartley once said that he had absolutely no idea how to launch an Oscar campaign and no desire to do so. I doubt the Academy would pay any attention to Hal if he did campaign for his films, but it's nice to know that the feeling is mutual.

Another thing: the "major" film awards tend to like films that seem "important" or "worthy". They like films like "Benjamin Button" because they have star power, big studio money behind them AND the sense that they are artistically significant. In a few cases (ie. "Benjamin Button"), those factors all coincide to make a great movie. But they often don't. And there are many great movies, and very important and worthy movies, that don't have Sam Mendes directing them or Kate and Leo starring in them, that the Academy will pay no attention to, even if every Guild and Critic's Circle applauds them till their hands hurt. This year's great disgrace was Thomas McCarthy's magnificent film, "The Visitor". Films don't get much more "important" or "worthy" than this one, but it remains what it's main character is at the end: loud, earnest, righteously angry drumming that no-one stops and listens to. More's the pity. For me, it was the best film of the year.