Here at The Daily Campus, we receive a plethora of freestuff from record labels eager for some good reviews. Sometimesit’s little more than a sampler of a group’s latestefforts, sometimes it’s a full album. For the longest time,this mountain of music has remained untouched for fear of what liesbeneath its shrink-wrapped surface of bad cover art and exclamationmark-laden cover letters. After all, if a record label has resortedto sending full albums to a college newspaper, they must bedesperate. But no longer — I have taken it upon myself todive headfirst into this stagnant pool of mediocrity and bring tothe surface the very worst that music has to offer. You may notagree, you may think I’m too harsh, but that’s thenature of this business.
This is Bad Press.
Worship Circus: A BeautifulGlow
If you can’t already tell by its name, Worship Circus is aChristian group. This makes me uneasy in reviewing its new album, ABeautiful Glow. If I say that their music resembles the stuff thatgets swept out of the elephant cage, will this be an affront toJesus? Will hordes of ravening Christians come after me wavingtorches and pitchforks? I certainly hope not, because let me tellyou right now — calling this music elephant crap is rathergenerous.
When I think about the circus, I’m filled with warm, fuzzythoughts of daring acrobats on the trapeze, lion-tamers and clownsin tiny cars. It’s a place where life hangs in the balance onthe high wire, gymnasts perform death-defying stunts and foolhardyindividuals load themselves into massive cannons. And there areclowns.
Don’t be fooled by their name — Worship Circus hasnone of these things, though you could argue that its still full ofclowns. The concept of metaphor is totally lost on this bunch.Allow me to provide you with a track-by-track summary of thelyrics:
1) “I love God a wholebunch.”
2) “It’s great to loveGod.”
3) “Blessed are those who loveGod.”
4) “Loving God isCOOL!”
5) “Hey you! LoveGod!”
6) “Loving God isrevolutionary!”
There are four more tracks, but you get the point. And no,I’m not being needlessly reductive, Worship Circus’lyrics are so straightforward and literal that you can’tpossibly impose any other meaning onto them. When lead singerGabriel Wilson croons about how much he loves you, it’s”You” with a capital “Y.” Sorry, all yougirls who thought you were this guy’s salvation, but hisheart belongs to God, not you. It’s rough, but that’swhat happens when you ride with the Worship Circus.
24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal ReportersUncovered the Lies That Destroyed Faith in Corporate America ByRebecca Smith and John Emshwiller
One of the items clogging the Entertainment desk was this book,about how two Wall Street reporters uncovered blah, blah, blah.Apparently it’s about Enron or something. I didn’t wantto read it, but my dad was willing to take a crack at it. He readsthis sort of thing all the time. He had this to say about it:
“I found the book disjointed, self-serving, and premature.Lacking the drama of a good journalism story (a la All thePresident’s Men), or the intrigue of a good business book (ala Barbarians at the Gate), this book is just boring.”
So there you have it. I can’t add anything since Ididn’t read any farther than the dust jacket. One good thing,though – the title did remind me that 28 Days Later is comingout on DVD soon. Thank goodness for this book, I’d almostforgotten. Mmm … zombies.
