A kiss before dying…
[Video][Website]
[5.64]
Pete Baran: But who will look after the kids? Will The Ark get custody, leaving the rest of us to visit God in a service station every other weekend, followed by some 3D digimation and a lacklustre trip to Pizza Hut? Do we really want The Ark to get custody anyway? This is a Then Jerico song title waiting for a Then Jerico song, and The Ark have more or less delivered, though perhaps a few more listens to The Big Area (Outside) would have beefed up some of the backing.
[7]
David Moore: A fluffy contender for the smug pop-atheist (I call it Maher-pop) canon, though I guess this is more of an extreme variation on “there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure, maaaaaan.” And yet it’s decidedly prostrate — the Ark may not worship God, but they definitely worship Glam, and their refusal to go further is disappointing — the biggest this gets is the cod-gospel musical bridge that sounds more like checking a box on a genre form than secular transcendence. I like the Ark, so keeping pace with their third-tier singles is OK by me, but with this conceit I’d like my jaw to genuinely drop at least a little — “One of Us Is Gonna Die Young” is more controversial, more anthemic, and more spiritual by far.
[6]
Martin Skidmore: I didn’t mind this at all as it was playing, but it seems pretty undistinguished and very forgettable.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: The sad thing is, as tuneful as The Ark always are, they show less conviction than ever. And that’s despite the song’s theme! And the really sad thing is, The Ark no longer surprise. This sounds exactly as you’d expect it to. From a band who have often been thoughtful, funny, thrilling, touching and important, this is a bit painful.
[4]
Anthony Easton: Hidden Cameras. Look them up.
[3]
Alex Macpherson: Not as clever as it thinks it is: the kind of lyric penned by people who know that religion is a “meaningful” subject but don’t know, or care, why. So we get references to God and the Devil played for empty quirk, as though Tori Amos hadn’t already thoroughly dissected and shredded this concept 17 years ago (catchier, to boot), and set to an arrangement of blustery smarm. Nothing is at stake here.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Of course the lead singer sings “I will follow.” These fools delineate their “Dear God” problem with U2 “passion,” ooh-oohs, and a chorus cobbled from Green Day and Live detritus. The hooks in the verses and the hard electric strumming at the two-minute mark rock with surprising force though, so it’s easier to accept their fervor: like listening to high schoolers playing Christian rock at the local Baptist church.
[5]
Jer Fairall: Was it really necessary to throw “and the Devil too” in there? Who in their right mind is going to mistake something this ebulliently tuneful for an allegiance to Satan?
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: I can’t fault the sentiment, a joyous coming-out anthem kissing off a lifetime of conflicted selfhood and pain, but I can’t help wondering whether sounding exactly like modern Christian music was the best way to frame it.
[6]
Josh Langhoff: My old youth group friend, with whom I’d lost touch for a while, said recently that one of the most freeing moments of her life came when she realized she’d always been an atheist. Even though “Breaking Up With God” depicts a slightly different situation — Ola Salo hears the call, he just opts not to follow — I can still imagine the song playing over that scene in the movie of her life, preferably a scene of quiet joy in a restaurant rather than a montage of her twirling and splashing in a big stone fountain or something. It does SOUND like a fountain montage song, with its New Romantic riff and wonderful vocal harmonies. Salo sings with giddy relief, like he just realized he was parched and surrounded by water all at once. And this is why I find the song tremendously moving. As with most great God celebration songs, this one burrows down into the singer’s core and comes up with remnants of inexpressible things. “Reach my heaven alive” — whatever that turns out to be, it’s a necessary goal.
[10]
Zach Lyon: Nothing before or after the 80s: “Young Turks” melodies and “Jessie’s Girl” vocals and lyrics like, I dunno, “Religion I” by Public Image Ltd? There’s little else here, but that all’s enough.
[7]