What are you listening to?

[Crow]

24 cans of guinness for almost $50 and that's considered a deal! What a rip off.

[Bad Penny]

24 cans of guinness for almost $50 and that's considered a deal! What a rip off.

Taxation has a lot to do with it I think.



You can get box wine for $2.20 a litre, it's taxed differently.

[Biggus Dickus]

There's nothing like Mazzy Star.

...and Halah off the album, "She Hangs Brightly". I just loved this album.

Off the same album, "Before I Sleep".

[xSilverPhinx]

Those are nice, Bruno. I wasn't familiar with Mazzy Star's music...

But today I'm in the mood for some Kryptic Minds.

[OldGit]

Mozart's Clarinet concerto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd7-ZvMx1fE

[Sandra Craft]

A street festival going on right below my window.  I wish I could enjoy it but I'm just waiting for the noise to stop.

[xSilverPhinx]

[Magdalena]

...And now, it's time to relax.

[xSilverPhinx]

[MariaEvri]

I am hooked to thois

[xSilverPhinx]

I  UNKLE

[Biggus Dickus]

I like this song by Hozier a lot, are you familiar with this acoustic version by Michael Chapdelaine? I don't often go for acoustic/instrumental covers of songs, but this one by Michael really captures the essence of the song with his fingerstyle technique, I think it one of his best covers, in fact I believe I posted this version here before.

Funny thing about this song by Hozier. When it first hit the air-ways it was of course extremely popular, and was getting a lot of airplay on both the popular and indie stations,and a growing number of those who really liked the song were Christians who really loved the whole, "Take Me To Church" chorus.

But then some pastors and religious leaders actually took the time to read the lyrics, and started to realize that it's not actually a pro-christian song at all, and doubled down on the meaning of the lyrics and began to discuss it at services because so many of their young people were enjoying the song.
In fact a pastor wrote an open letter to Hozier in response to the lyrics.

Here's another Christian leader's take on the song and his translation of the lyrics, which he deems pretty blasphemous.

Spoiler

Regrettably, the lyrics to "Take Me to Church" are pretty blasphemous. Here's my theological analysis with my commentary in brackets:

[Verse 1]
My lover's got humour
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshipped her sooner (So this is the cue. The God throughout the song is a girlfriend.)
If the Heavens ever did speak ("If the Heavens ever" = revealed religion is cast into doubt)
She's the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
"We were born sick", you heard them say it ("they" [Catholics] teach original sin)
My church offers no absolutes (So unlike Catholicism, there are no moral absolutes – only relativism)
She tells me "worship in the bedroom" (the liturgy is sex. It's the place of union between him and the "god"/girlfriend)
The only heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you
I was born sick, but I love it (acknowledges original sin – but he loves it)
Command me to be well (a reference to Christ commanding people to be well in the Gospels)

[Pre-Chorus]
Amen, Amen, Amen

[Chorus] (x2)
Take me to church (remember, "Church" here is sexual reference in this song)
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife (confession reference)
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life (he hands over his life to her the "god")

[Verse 2]
If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side (the god/girlfriend is also a goddess)
She demands a sacrifice (here's where the song gets "Eucharistic" with reference to sacrificial meal and hunger...)
Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine looking high horse
What you got in the stable? (reference to the Christ Child "in the stable")
We've a lot of starving faithful
That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work

[Chorus] (x2)

[Bridge]
No masters or kings when the ritual begins (egalitarian ritual – sex)
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin (hey, at least he knows it's sin – he's Irish!)
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene (a reference perhaps to leaving earth into the "heavenly bliss" of sexual embrace)
Only then I am human
Only then I am clean (he ends with a reference the sexual completion as a kind of baptism or absolution)

Amen, Amen, Amen
By: Dr Taylor Marshall

Here's Hozier's own words on it:

'Take Me to Church' is essentially about sex, but it's a tongue-in-cheek attack at organizations that would... undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation — that it is sinful, or that it offends God... But it's not an attack on faith... it's an assertion of self, reclaiming humanity back for something that is the most natural and worthwhile.

[xSilverPhinx]

I like that cover, thanks for posting.

The reason this song is pretty blasphemous is one of the reasons I like it so much. 

[Siz]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zmL-OT4Q3sc

Following the death yesterday of our beloved Ronnie Corbett, I've been listening to this addictive little number. Love it!

[Biggus Dickus]

I've been listening to Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power a lot lately. This is an awesome live version of her performing "Lived in Bars"