New Poptimist! About Coldplay, epic rock, religion, half-remembered bits from my English A-Level, etc etc.
Another great Poptimist column, as happens about once a month!
On This Is the Sea, Mike Scott seemed to pull it back to its religious meaning, as an expression of your communion with a higher force. Not God, though: truth, meaningfulness, music itself. The Big Music rewrote rock as a kind of secular gospel music: meta-gospel, where the object of worship is all about how high the music you’re listening to dreams of being.
A while back, I was thinking/writing about something I think might be related — a habit, among indie bands, of shooting for similar feelings. Only the indie bands do it in a way that’s, well, indier: It’s more about drum-banging mysticism, making songs that feel ritualistic, maybe even “pagan.” It never crossed my mind that the urge to Epic Pop-Rock is essentially the same — looking for the sensation of transcendence and uplift and religious transport without needing such a fixed belief on the other end.
Really loved Tom’s column this month. The only offnote I detected was in this paragraph toward the end:
And so it’s no surprise that there’s been a resurgence in this strain of epic pop recently, as a possible reaction to a constant background noise about music’s loss of value, its reduction to commodity status. Borrowing the tactics and longings of religion is a great way to telegraph meaning— even if it makes for hollow art.
I think turning it back on a commentary about music is not the right instinct - that seems too insular to me. I think this epic, bigger-than-us music appeals both to its makers and its listeners as a form of escapism from the rest of everyday life. When you’re stressed about money, politics, family, war, and so on, I think epic music, at its best, is like a liferaft.
To Nitsuh’s point, in an “indier” sense I think there is a similar desire, which might be framed more as a Where the Wild Things Are-esque escape from all the bullshit. Maybe a little less about finding “spiritual” solace as finding “primitive” release.
7 months ago