Listener- "Wooden Heart"

      Although it was a challenge to limit myself to just one song for this post, I chose "Wooden Heart" by Listener. Listener is the musical alias Dan Smith, an Arkansas native. While he has recorded albums with a full band, he typically tours and performs alone using trumpets, washing machines and sledge hammers to make beats and interludes. His voice has a heaviness that is neither screaming or singing and is thought to be unique by most who hear it. The produced noises, however, are not meant to be the center of the performances. The lyrical content is at the heart of his live and recorded work.
    
       As we have discussed in Developing a Christian Mind, images have impacts. They can do anything from making shopping seam like a religious pilgrimage to triggering the imaginations of those who experience them. Images, however, are not always visual as Smith explores in this song.  He begins the song by illustrating the inevitable brokenness of life in this world by saying, "This war ship is sinking," but, in the same line, offers a glimpse of possible redemption by finishing the line, "But I still believe in anchors." His harsh voice chills but the background music is nearly relaxing, offering an interesting juxtaposition. The song uses imagery of boats, sailing, and tides, saying that we are all just shipwrecked parts but have the ability to, "Wash each other in tears of joy and tears of grief." He articulates well the balance of brokenness and despair in this life with the hope of redemption.
     
       While, perhaps, some of the arrangements of words that are used in this song can be perceived as cliche, Smith's work is still filled with apocalyptic details. Neither explicitly Christian or Not, the song is certainly a work of art and not propaganda. The song's integrity will not be threatened by creative interpretation,  but requires it.

      I have found the Kingdom of God peeking through the work of Listener, particularly in this song. It reminds us of our need for healing, our responsibility to one another and the sobering fact that we still need an outside force of grace to truly live ("Come on and sew us together, we're just tattered rags stained..") Apolyptic art such as this has the ability to draw in the believer and non-believer alike and being outside of typical confines of genre, this song can, and hopefully has and will, offer Kingdom glimpses to many people.

Discussion questions: Is it important to know what an artist is trying to say through their work? Or is our own interpretation more important?
Does genre labeling dictate whether or not we will give a musical artist a chance?