Looking for to Fill That God-Shaped Hole

August 4, 2006

Rock music has always been best when dedicated to ideas of individualism, the questioning of authority, the marriage of the intellectual, spiritual and physical, and the positing of new notions concerning freedom and responsibility. That's why the concept of Christian rock is troubling for so many. Rock music has so long been the voice of the exile that to see it joining a club with predescribed notions of morality and spirituality seems deeply contradictory.

Regardless, there have been some successful meldings of spirituality and rock 'n' roll. Indeed, some might argue that the best rock is always a spiritual thing, that the act of making music itself is a spiritual endeavor. Not surprisingly, most of the finest musical moments of this sort happened outside the confines of Christian rock, right smack-dab in the middle of the secular music world. Here are a few of the best moments when "God" met rock 'n' roll head-on.

1) U2, "October" (1981): U2 has never been a Christian rock band, but nearly every single one of its songs deals with the "big questions": "God," spirituality, morality, political injustice, and how love fits into this rather tattered jigsaw we call existence. "October" is a naked and bold collection of religious songs that, to its great artistic advantage, asks far more questions than it suggests answers to. Bono's theme here is a yearning for transcendence, and throughout "October," he speaks of a longing for grace and the challenges imposed by a clearly flawed human self. "Gloria" begs some spiritual force to "loosen my lips," while "I Fall Down" speaks of feelings of moral inadequacy, and "Is That All?" dares to ask the deity just what the heck he wants his "servant" to do with the talent he has been given. It's incredibly passionate and timelessly moving stuff.

2) King's X, "Faith Hope Love" (1990): Like U2, King's X never considered itself a Christian band. But this 1990 magnum opus blends heavy rock, Beatle-esque melodies, and progressive rock virtuosity with lyrics that are not unlike those of U2's Bono -- laced with yearning and a longing for some sort of transcendence. Great music, regardless of your religious beliefs.

3) Switchfoot, "The Beautiful Letdown" (2003): Switchfoot actually fits within the confines of the "God rock" movement, but its music appeals to fans of melodic and anthemic alternative rock acts such as Coldplay, Keane and "The Bends"-era Radiohead. Many have suggested that Switchfoot has given the idiom a veneer of hipness.

4) The Newsboys, "Step Up to the Microphone" (1998): This Australian outfit makes unabashedly optimistic and sunny pop music, most of it relating to the "big ideas": God, love and their intermingling. To the band's credit, it never comes off as cloying or preachy. Consider the band Christian rock's Barenaked Ladies.

5) U2, "Pop" (1997): Whoa. On this overlooked and undervalued gem, U2 forged a sound that blended electronica with its own anthemic rock, and married it to startlingly confrontational religious lyrics. Few knew what to make of it. "Discoteque" was ostensibly U2 doing dance-tronica, but a closer listen revealed it to be the cry of a wandering believer longing to come home. And it only got heavier from there, Bono sneering that he was "looking for the baby Jesus under the trash" and "looking for to fill that God-shaped hole," Elsewhere, "Wake Up Dead Man" found the singer admonishing his creator for abandoning the universe. This commingling of rock and spiritual seeking is still astounding, 10 years on.