Danielson “Ships”

When Ships, Daniel Smith’s latest album as Danielson, is released on May 6, it will probably reignite the currently dormant and altogether dumb-but-necessary “debate” over Christian-themed indie rock, well-laid out here. I have three reasons for thinking this. First, Smith’s music recorded as Danielson, Br. Danielson, Danielson Familie, etc., can claim its own unique musico-religious (or religio-musical?) territory, somewhere between the poles of Animal Collective’s woodland howling and Sufjan Stevens’ naive elementary school pageant rockenspiel. Where Stevens is a soft-voiced Sunday School teacher who illustrates bible stories on weekends, Smith is a less-polished and pretty backwoods revivalist, equally touched by the spirit and disposed to album-length celebrations of family and community.

Second, Ships is the best work that Smith’s ever been involved with, and it will (and should) receive a good deal of attention on this count. The album as a whole is being pitched as the culmination of twelve years of music-making, and was no doubt aided by the assistance of Deerhoof, Why?, Serena Maneesh and Sufjan Stevens, the latter of whom also appears in this clip from the forthcoming documentary Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make a Joyful Noise Here) (mov). And that’s my third reason. The film, which will debut at SxSW, looks fantastic and fun, and promises to give a good deal of insight into Smith’s creative rationale, one which openly embraces faith in a way that just doesn’t happen often enough.

The predicted rock fallout is summed up well by Steve Albini, who says while talking to Smith, “There are some people within the straight rock scene that sorta feel like ‘well, its okay if you read some of them weird books on religion…just don’t start singin’ about it.’” That kind of thinking is a fascinating mirror of the conservative reaction to homosexuality—the old “they’re fine and all, as long as they don’t try to convert me”. Both stances evince a clear aversion to anything challenging or different, and defend it with a faux tolerance–as long as it’s fenced in, it’s tolerable. However, if Ships has the the opportunity to become as popular as I hope it does, now would be the time—as Dahlen mentioned in the Pitchfork piece, Stevens opened the gate wide last year for non-evangelical progressive Christianity to make an appearance within indie rock. And, really though–isn’t it about time?

Now, my personal lack of any religious belief whatsoever notwithstanding, shouldn’t a musical community defined by heterogeneity and inclusiveness of style finally take steps to assimilate without predjudice well-made faith-based music? We’re not talking Kevin Max here; like any good work of musical art, Ships doesn’t club the listener over the head with a message, it celebrates its influences through carefully crafted and quite stunning representations. It’s the most thoroughly accessible and beautiful work in a musical career based on high-concept; it’s forceful and beautiful, celebratory and careful, and easily one of the best albums that will be released this year.

Visit the Sounds Familyre website here.

Visit Ships‘ myspace here.
Secretly Canadian’s Ships one-sheet is here.

Filed under: bloomingtopia  Danielson  Secretly Canadian  Steve Albini