First time in a long time for Birds are Better (Stian Fjelldal), who was last here almost two years ago.
A deep thinking philosopher type, it was no great surprise to learn that his latest single, ‘Hymn for the hope and the sorrow’, is about doing something that resembles prayer, even when you don’t really believe in the concept of prayer. About trying anyway. About paying attention for signs — and letting yourself feel what’s there, if you allow it.
Sitting on the fence metaphorically speaking, with just enough confidence that if you fall a shepherd will be there to save you but whether or not he is sent from God is another matter.
That is similar to the mantra of Hazel “Haze” Motes, the character in Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood, a disillusioned World War II veteran and grandson of a preacher, haunted by a life-long crisis of faith, who sets up the ‘Church of Christ Without Christ’, and resolves to form an anti-religious ministry in an eccentric, fictionalised US city.
I doubt Birds are Better has gone that far down that particular path yet and perhaps it might be more appropriate to reconcile his viewpoint with the growing number of youngsters in the UK at least, that are flocking into church today, quadrupling attendance numbers over six years, driven by a search for community, meaning, and mental health support, particularly among young men, rather than the need to “Praise the Lord!!”
All of them “trying to play, in my own way.”
“All my worries wash away / When I pray
I don’t believe in God anyway…
Yes, I’m gonna try / Again and again.”
A slow burning, jerky, wholly acoustic track played on guitar, piano and a xylophone, the line “I feel you” pervades it and is as suggestive of how touchy-feely religion has become as anything being recorded right now.
He recorded it in his own studio in Oslo, and also mixed and mastered it himself.
Which actually leaves him on sticky ground. The Bible generally advises against self-reliance. Proverbs 3:5-6, instructs, ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’.
But I’m sure Stian will take that with a pillar of salt, too. Sorry I meant a pinch.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
Find him on:
Website: https://birdsarebetter.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/birdsarebetter
