Category: Friday Five

Friday Five: best songs of the decade

Before I post my highly anticipated list of my selections for the top 100 albums of the decade, I need to get this out of my system: a brief Friday Five listing of my favorite singles of the decade. (I use “best” and “favorite” interchangeably, because if it’s one of my favorites, chances are I also consider it to be one of the best.)

Also, while you’re waiting for my personal list of the decade’s top albums, please visit the collective ranking by me and six other higher ed music geeks at Higher Ed Music Critics.

OK, on to our countdown. I’ll try to do my best Casey Casem impersonation for you:

5. (tie) I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor – the Arctic Monkeys. These bratty Brits came out of nowhere with buzzsaw guitar and hammering rhythm to accompany the clever, come-on vocals of this tune. No other word to describe it but “catchy.”

5. (tie) Fell in Love With a Girl – the White Stripes. I was hooked by Jack White’s chunky power-chord opening. The song’s sudden ending follows the showbiz rule to always leave ’em wanting more. This is the song that made me fall in love with the White Stripes.

4. Beautiful Day – U2. See the bird with the leaf in her mouth/After the flood all the colors came out. A song of hope and renewal.

3. Crazy – Gnarls Barkley. How could anyone listen to this and not get up and dance?

2. Hey Ya – Outkast. Another highly danceable tune, and the only one that compels us to shake it like a Polaroid picture. I am on record as proclaiming this the song of the decade, but upon further review I must place it a rung below…

1. Hurt, Johnny Cash. What a powerful, moving rendition of this Nine Inch Nails tune. The Man in Black, no stranger to pain, heartache and hard life, creates a beautifully dark and haunting melody at the twilight of his career. It’s pretty depressing, though.

Bonus: music video of the decade:


Here It Goes Again (video) – OK Go

Friday Five: the Gospel According to Glee

Sorry, I couldn’t wait for Friday.

A couple of weeks ago, Nancy Gibbs, writing in TIME magazine, tried to convey the spiritual underpinnings of Fox’s hit TV series, Glee.

While her heart was in the right place, she really missed the mark. Maybe the redemptive analogies are just too obvious for her, or maybe Ms. Gibbs is just unschooled in the art of reading theology into pop culture. (If that’s the case, then I would suggest she check out William D. Romanowski’s excellent book, Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture, for some background.)

This show is jam-packed with redemptive analogies, and that, I believe is part of its appeal. It isn’t just sappy entertainment; it also resonates on a spiritual level.

So let me talk a little theological smack here and share five spiritual aspects of the show. Hey, it’s a long way till next season.

(Warning: the following observations arise from my own Judeo-Christian perspective, because that’s my cultural frame of reference. Apologies to those who follow other paths. You have been warned.)

1. Will Schuester as messiah figure. This is the most obvious aspect that Gibbs somehow missed. I really don’t know how anyone could miss this one. Glee coach “Schu” inspires a dozen misfits from diverse backgrounds — his very own 12 disciples — to follow his crazy dream of forming a glee club. He leads them to the promised land of sectionals and to spiritual triumph over their own personal demons. But, like Moses of the Old Testament, Schu himself cannot enter into the promised land, for he has sinned, as all humans (even messiah figures) do. Moses smote the rock; Schu slept on the mattress. And their sins prevented them from seeing their dreams become reality.

2. Sue Sylvester, antichrist. The sly, conniving coach of the Cheerios, Sue Sylvester, could not be a more fitting adversary for Schuester. She is both Satan the Adversary and Judas the Betrayer. (Jane Lynch should win an Emmy for her role.)

3. Figgins at the judgment seat. The wise Principal Figgins is cast in the role of God Himself — or if that’s too much for you, maybe Solomon. He must judge between the rivals, Sue and Schu, and decide which one falls and which is redeemed. They both sit before the judgment seat, and Figgins thunders: “My word is official. Let it be written!” How much more of a patriarchical godlike statement can you get from a TV show?

4. Finn, the Peter/Joshua figure. So Schu cannot make it into the promised land. But one disciple can: the conflicted, hot-headed Finn. He fights with Puck, is absorbed with self-doubt, and yet he is the one who is anointed by Schu himself to unite the others after Schu himself must step aside. In the final episode, the messiah figure Schu even gives Finn “the keys to the kingdom,” much like Jesus of Nazareth did for his disciple Peter (c.f. Matt. 16:18-19).

5. Don’t stop believing (video link). Isn’t that the biggest spiritual message of all?

OK, Glee fans. Tell me what I missed.