1999 Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado
[Indie Folk] A song by Benjamin Daniel.
Hi Pal,
It’s often difficult for me to speak “in the moment” and rant a bit about things. I tend to be a very structured person and I’ve carried a lot of that into writing this newsletter so far.
Still, irrespective of how composed I may come across when I write, I am not immune to the ways that music can sometimes break us. Benjamin Daniel released his new album a week ago; an album I’ve been expecting for a minute but somehow forgot all about last month. It didn’t even make my monthly wrap for April.
Last night, I was in the mood for some indie tunes, so I made a cup of coffee and started listening to Former Ruins. As it is with Spotify, Benjamin’s album, Home Enough For Now, popped up as an album that Former Ruins appears on and that’s when I realized I had missed this release.
This is an album about the loss of his mother and it deals with heavy and deep themes. I’m not quite ready to talk about the entire album yet.
1999 Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado is the seventh track and as soon as I heard it, I knew I was going to be stuck there for a bit. In some ways, it’s the nucleus of the album as Benjamin pours out his heart and we can hear some of his inner monologue as he deals with this tragedy. It’s a progressive indie folk that builds very slowly until it hits visceral riff-heavy interlude before the song finally simmers and fades.
It has heavy lines like:
…don’t you find it so inhumane how you can care for someone’s body and suddenly have no say…
….I wish I could feel anything but when it fell to pieces, your foot was underneath us…
This song is laden with so many unanswered questions that depict a real struggle to give in to despair, yet, still filled with hope and trust that God knows and cares.
I’ve been a fan of indie rock and folk for a very long time, and have connected with sadness, loss and grief on many albums in my relatively short life. In the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to Christians making albums that focus on these subjects and there is just something different about them.
Last year, Allen Odell (who was also featured on Benjamin's album), released Full Hearts, Empty Places, an album that deals with similar themes and it was one of my musical highlights of 2022.
I’m not saying that I enjoy the suffering of other Christians, as these are heavy issues that are being dealt with and don’t simply exist for artistic expression. However, we can agree that grief expressed through music is cathartic. Nothing is going to change that. So, I’m at least glad that we get to hear fellow believers expressing themselves in this manner.
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It’ll probably take a little while to write a review for this album but until that time, you can check out other reviews we have written here.
I’m always ready to hear what you have to say, tell me your thoughts.
Feel free to take things a step further here:
Still reeling from Can't Keep Up