Tynan's Anger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #43

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Lambchop - Paperback Bible (2006)



One perpetual problem in music criticism (addressed consistently throughout this list) is the fact that the primary audience for music fans is so different from those who review music for a living. The irresistible rise of dad rock has filtered down to punk and indie rock, which has led Yo La Tengo, the Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, to receive praise that's unreflective (though not necessarily undeserved) of the tastes of contemporary college rock audiences.

Lambchop, perhaps the best rock and roll band on an independent label ever to come out of Nashville, may have nailed the aging problem in indie rock better than any band this decade with "Paperback Bible." In the shadows of Graceland, Kurt Wagner realized that once you age, the issue becomes less about underground versus mainstream, genre vs. genre, or rock vs. pop; it becomes about music's eternal role, the kind that transcends one mortal life. Rushing through every material object he can think of, most of them deliberately antiquated, Wagner realizes that the one thing he doesn't have is a good used paperback bible, which, regardless of religious views, is the only item listed in this song that won't become dated once we're all dead. That is, other than this song, of course, which Wagner's sweet, trademark unremarkable voice, a guitar and a string section. That's all there is, but of course, you can't take any of it with you.

Labels: 2000s, lambchop, lists, paperback bible, pop music, songs of the decade