derek webb stockholm syndrome update: new track released – what matters more

By Ryan Byrd

music, theology, favorites, emergent, christian subculture, church, music you should know
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as we speak, i’m sulkingly watching a twitter feed following the search term “derek webb”. why? because tonight was the big climax to the big derek webb marketing/controversy/scavenger hunt thing, which culminated in a secret show at the rutledge in nashville. the big surprise, apparently, was that webb had vans ready (so it seems from people’s semi-vague tweets) to take people back to his home (where his studio is) and give them all a private screening of the entire album. shoulda coulda woulda… 🙂

along with today’s culmination came the release of the final “stems” at paradiseisaparkinglot.com (you can download them all there). if you place them all together in the correct order in some type of audio editor (pro tools, garage band, audacity, etc), you get the track that is at the center of the aforementioned label controversy.

it’s called what matters more and quite frankly, it’s an amazing and beautiful track. as rumored, it deals with the issue of sexual orientation and it drops a couple of cuss words (gasp!!). it’s a pointed and harshly truthful song that, as you might guess, strongly appeals to both my musical and theological sensibilities (not to mention general communicative sensibilities).

here are the lyrics:

say you always treat people like you like to be
i guess you love being hated for your sexuality
you love when people put words in your mouth
’bout what you believe, make you sound like a freak
cause if you really believe what you say you believe
you wouldn’t be so damn reckless with the words you speak
wouldn’t silently conceal when the liars speak
denying all the dyin’ of the remedy
tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
tell me, sister, what matters more to you?
if i can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
then it sure looks like to me being straight is all it’s about
it looks like being hated for all the wrong things
like chasin’ the wind while the pendulum swings
cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face
about the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save
meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit
about the 3,000 people who are dying today
tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
tell me, sister, what matters more to you?
brother, what matters more to you?
tell me, sister, what matters more to you?
tell me what matters more to you?
tell me, brother, what matters more to you?

several months ago, webb hinted that he was headed in a more electronic kind of musical direction and honestly, as huge of a fan that i am, i kind of cringed a little. oh me of little faith. webb has delivered on this very electronic track.

so, without further ado, here’s the song.