"Deep Thought: If God Lives inside us, like some people say, then I hope he likes enchiladas, because that's what he's getting!"I have always had a problem with waiting. I tend to be a very impulsive person by nature. This often tends to reflect through my spending habits especially. I don't know what it is but when I see something I want my mind instantly becomes fixated. The tractor-beam of temptation sets in and my hand extends without the concent of a rational mind. Oh, the mind does fight. He says, "You shouldn't do this right now" and then the hand answers back, "I thought I told you to shut up" and then the mind answers, "Yes, master." A month later when hand is sitting in a corner curled up in a ball of empty-pocketedness mind says to him, "I tried to tell you" but hand can't hear him because he has gone into epileptic shocks yelling out "Me likey buyey." With that lame analogy, I press on to the impending dynamic of waiting and how I have faced it this week.
I have been a huge fan of a band named "Brand New" for the past few years. Sure, they started out as a predictable pop-punk band with Taking Back stlye licks and cliche multiple simultaneous singing parts on "Your Own Weapon." Then again, I have always been a music sell-out(oh yes, I did buy Chumbuwamba). Besides, they made a huge transition with their second album "Deja Entendu"; showing a dynamic ability to take elements from great bands like the Smiths and the Cure and build a completely new musical realm that balanced driving choruses, tricky lyrics, and great creative rifts. Needless to say, after a huge maturation from their first to second CD, I was enamored with the thought of where they could go on their third album:
"The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me." And so I waited...
First, the band began the anticipation with a website that laked detail but showed off cool lyrics every few months with obscure pictures. Magazines were hailing this album as being one of the biggest albums to arrive in the music world in years. Then, nothing. The band just stopped telling anything about the album, didn't update their site, and took a long time off playing. It wasn't until 1/2 a year ago, 3 years later, that they suddenly reawoke from their slumber with the announcement of a new CD on November 21st coming out. After 3 years of waiting, my time had finally come.
So I did as any ravenous fan would do and tried to download demos, checked their myspace frequently for new songs, and got myself so excited that I could barely sleep(I'm exagerrating a little...a little).
The day came: November 21st. When I got off work I headed to the store and bought it. I sat down to my glorious moment, the past three years behind me, and a week of listening ahead of me.
I listened through each track carefully. I examined words and pictures, thoughts and sounds. I came to the end of the CD and there was only one thought sitting in my mind, "Was this really what I was waiting for? Three damn years and this was it!"
All in all, the album wasn't bad. I liked some of the songs and it had its memorable moments, and parts that I really enjoyed. Yet, still, it left me with an emptiness much like Christmas night after Mom kicks Dad out of the house and kid sister is in the back vomitting egg nog(j/k). I wanted to like it so much, I even tried to convince myself that it was amazing, but it was...average.
Tonight it hit me...there have been alot of things that I have waited for in life that have let me down this past year...Sometimes I just wonder what I am really waiting for and if it's worth it. As "Christians" we put great emphasis on this waiting concept. We say phrases like "I'm waiting on God" or "Listening and waiting for God's timing" and I can't help but feel sometimes, am I really waiting for something? What if I am just wasting and not waiting? Maybe Brand New will come out with an amazing fourth album...and maybe someday life will be all that imagined it to be...or maybe it's time I start listening to a different band.
