More on Derek Webb's Stockholm Syndrome

I mentioned last week that you can pre-order Derek Webb's new album, Stockholm Syndrome, and get an immediate digital download. I've been listening the album a ton since I got my download, and I'm absolutely loving it. It is extremely different from anything Derek's done in the past musically, and lyrically, he's ratcheting up the in-your-faceness to 11. This isn't background music. It's jarring, controversial, truth-laced, "did-he-just-say-that?" music. Lots will be written about this album. Lots will be negative (many already have been). Hopefully, some will get the point and see things differently.

Derek tweeted a link to this article today, and I thought I'd share this example of someone who seems to get what Derek was trying to do.

In Webb's Christian venue, of course, words still have that power. The closest thing to an official explanation I've heard for why INO won't release the song "What Matters More" is that it includes a dirty word beginning with "s." (In some evangelical circles, the shot of Moore smoking tobacco on his own Texas porch is proof enough that "Stockholm Syndrome" grew out of an atmosphere of moral lassitude.) Another strike, obviously, is Webb's thorough-going critique of the evangelical culture's moral self-regard, particularly its "reckless" rejection of homosexuals. "If I can tell what's in your heart by what comes out of your mouth," he sings on "What Matters More, "it sure seems like being straight is what this is all about."

But this kind of attack on Christian complacency is not news. In books, speeches and songs, evangelical thinkers and artists have been openly questioning their culture's strident emphasis on sexuality. The critique is not even a departure for Webb. His Dylan-esque 2007 album "The Ringing Bell" became notorious for its song "Savior on Capitol Hill," chiding Christians for trying to restore the Christian nation through politics. The news here is Webb's reinvention as a techno-beat wizard, and that, with his latest turnover in style, controversy has become Webb's only constant.

This makes for a slippery soapbox. Webb wants his fellow Christians to see how they have adopted the principles of the larger culture that has taken them hostage. (Stockholm Syndrome refers to the tendency of hostages to sympathize with the goals of their kidnappers.) Webb's refusal to fit a format, to accept what's merely working, to be hostage to an audience, is exciting to watch. But to see him do it while aiming for the Billboard Hot List risks confusion or, worse, disingenuousness. But the charge in "Stockholm Syndrome" is precisely its ambiguity, something few Christian artists have achieved, or even attempted.

Read the whole article at BeliefNet.