While writing Reclaiming the Narrative: a book about God and Politics, I listened to a lot of music - albums, often on repeat, typically with a new album for each chapter. So, here’s the music to which Reclaiming the Narrative was born:

Getting Killed - Geese

This is easily my favorite album of the last five years, maybe longer. It reminds me of early Kings of Leon and The Strokes. It has the energy of the early-2000s, which I’m here for.

It really powered me through the last two chapters, the outro, and the deep edits of chapter 6. It’ll be my top album on Spotify Wrapped, for sure.

A Billion Little Lights - Wild Pink

My friend, Christian was my go to person for music recommendations. I’d give him like 5 key words and he’d immediately give me the perfect music to write to. A.B.L.L. worked perfectly, and I’d give the album a 10.

The lyrics are amazing, beautifully sung, and it hits from start to finish.

Pilllar of Na - Saintseneca

This album, unbeknownst to me at the time, would provide a guide of sorts for R.t.C. The album has the theme of a Circle, with an intro and outro that ultimately gave me the ideas that bookend R.t.C.

The lyric: “You’re a fucking baby, but your pain is valid too” is one of my favorite lyrics in a while. I’ll use it, eventually, on one of the fantasy boys and they’ll, no doubt, get offended.

Cowboy Carter - Beyonce

Though not a founding member of the BeyHive, I’ve admired Beyonce’s work for a long time. I think Lemonade is a masterpiece, and enjoyed Cowboy Carter.

When it came out, I heard the singles and came across it everywhere, but then I started listen to the album. I was hooked. I was especially glad that it worked to write to. “Just for Fun” may be my favorite song. The way she was entering the space of “country” as an “outsider” really worked hit me in the space that I’m trying to enter with R.t.C.

Is This It -The Strokes

This is a Top 5 all time album for me. I love it. The voice. The energy. The way it’s so different. I remember the first time I heard it, and it’s lived in my heavy rotation for two decades.

It’s a go to when I needed inspiration or a pick-me-up to get me through a tough section of the text.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

This is also a Top-5 All Time album for me. I love it. It’s supposedly about the lead singer’s obsession with the Diary of Anne Frank. The obsession bleeds through the songs, and you can hear the passion in the lead singer’s (Jeff Mangum) voice. Something about the obsession of topic and devotion of art speaks to me. As I’m working through chapters, I try to channel that passion and obsession.

Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk

I don’t know a single track title or song lyric of this beautiful album, but gosh darn did it work. It was another Christian special, sent as a trio of recs that did what it needed to every time I pressed play. A go to, especially early on, in the early chapters.

Black Messiah - D’Angelo

This was a new album to me, and I listened to it quite often on the same day I’d listen to the Talk Talk album. Both have very different styles, but carry a similar emotional tone. Black Messiah hits hard from “Ain’t That Easy” to “Another LIfe”. If memory serves, I played this one especially heavyly during the chapter titled “Missing the Point”. Black Messiah was perfecly accompanied that point .

A Crow Looked at Me - Mt. Eerie

This is an album about death. The lead singer, Phil Elverum last his wife to cancer and was left grieving with his young daughter. The loss is tragic, the situation awful. P.E.somehow turns his grief into something beautiful. The honesty, rawness, and vulnerability of the album is what I hope to encapsulate in R.t.C.

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