My Smalltown Poets Top 10

Today’s the day! Smalltown Poets is finally releasing their 8th studio album, and the first non-Christmas album since 2012’s EP, Under the New Sun. To prepare for the new release, I thought I’d list, and briefly “review”, my top 10 Smalltown Poets songs.

Top 10 lists are, I think, extremely subjective. Your list will likely differ from mine, and I might even reorder these songs on any given day, but here we go:

11. I’ll Give

Every Top 10 needs at least 1 honorable mention, and I’ll Give is this one’s. Obviously, since this was off their first album, this is one of the first STP songs I heard, and I instantly fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful reminder that Christ gave everything so we need give everything as well.

10. Prophet, Priest and King

The combination of the melody carrying the cleverly worded imagery has always made me smile. In this song, the singer notes how he’s tried communicating with important people, the President of the USA and the Queen of England, only to have his missives seemingly ignored. He finds solace, though, in the fact that in his closet, a prayer closet, we learn, he communes with a “prophet, priest, and king”, Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, Paul tells us, so it’s OK. “Important people” may have ignored him, but the Creator of the universe is “an old friend”, and as Believers, we can take the same comfort.

9. The Gospel Is Peace

A large part of what I love about this is song is the somewhat driving feel, especially on the chorus and bridge. Lyrically, we’re reminded about the power of the Gospel to heal wounds and bring peace:

Pour the oil on troubled waters
Come around lay down arms
Rest between the pure in heart and persecuted
Sound alarms to make calm
Mend the fence convincing some
The Spirit’s sense of mercy
Live the Gospel and the Gospel is His peace

8. Clean

Simply put, this song is beautiful. Johnston’s falsetto, the clean simple picking on the electric guitar, the strings all meld into a gorgeous backdrop behind the precious truth of Scripture: through Jesus’ death and resurrection we stand clean before the Lord:

Clothed in the common and profane
And the tendency for independence runs through every vein
Self aware, bare before you at the water side
Afraid to take the step into the tide
Oh, I feel so obscene knowing I am only

Clean because you promised me
I’m clean, wash me, I am clean

7. Monkey’s Paw

“The Monkey’s Paw” is a great, classic “three wishes” story by W. W. Jacobs. It was one of my favorite reading assignments somewhere in middle school. The caution in that tale stuck with me years after the school assignment was over and done. Then I pop in a CD and here the story sung to me. I was hooked. While the song doesn’t necessarily retell the story, it alludes to it enough to bring in the rhetorical weight of the piece while the band builds on that with lyrics warning about living life apart from God’s will. Like the character in the story, we may think we’re doing OK by ourselves, but things often turn out differently than we’d hoped.

I held the monkey’s paw today and put my wishes into play
Thanked heaven for the trophies but I still had hell to pay
So I brought my spoils to the altar’s edge heard you say obey instead
For all of my labors and best laid plans I’d only earned a reprimand

6. The Ballad of Time and Eternity

I’ll have to confess something: allegory and I don’t always get along really well. I usually have to work really hard to pick out the pieces. This song is no different. Just when I think I have it figured out, it slips away. Are Time and Eternity just that, and is “the seed” man? Eternity meets Time in the Garden and “the seed” is planted (the Creation of Man) and now Time spread this seed all over Creation (“Be fruitful and multiply”) with each seed, or person, being “a meeting place for the love of His life” (“For God so loved the world”)? Like I said, to be honest, I don’t know. Nevertheless, I love the imagery, the melody, the instruments. I’ve had this song on repeat more than once. 🙂

5. Charlie Brown’s Lament

This is another great song off of Under the New Sun, but this one I think I understand. In this song, “Charlie Brown” observes “with man’s best friend” (Snoopy, we can easily assume given the title, and the line “if the doctor is in” later in the song). The lament so elegantly shows how we miss out on the abundant life we have in Christ as we’re often too busy “beg[ging] at the tables of hungry men”, “never speak to our dearest friend”. Snoopy, though, silly old “dumb” dog Snoopy, gets it.

He’s not an upwardly mobile guy
Happier still most days than I
So where’s all the John 10:10 in this
He’s really got it licked I guess
And if the doctor is in
I’ll state my case again

One of us knows he has a soul
Often I wonder who it is
One of us loves and lives and obeys
That’s just the way he is

4. We Will Continue

I’m not sure if this is exactly what the band had in mind for this song, but I think I’d be hard pressed to find a better depiction of God’s sovereignty and man’s free will than this song. It paints the picture of life being music: in the key of the meaning of life, God takes the melody, while we sing the harmony. To put that another way, in His sovereignty, God takes the melody, which (to put it roughly) controls “where” the song goes in pacing, direction, etc. We, then, come in with the harmony. We’re allowed to contribute to the song, filling in the sonic gaps, if you will. Our contribution can either blend with the melody and make the song sweeter, or it can clash, sounding discordant and unpleasant. Either way, the melody continues with God taking that lead. You may argue that I’m reaching a bit on this, but that’s OK. That’s just how I see this song. 🙂

We will continue to sing
Before and after the last notes ring
With a feel for the times beating out
In the key of what life is about

All day long we listen
You take the melody
All day long you let
Us have the harmony
This is worship
With every breath we sing

The second half of the song, I think, does a fantastic job of painting the historical context. We may be hear “singing” the song (sometimes quite literally), but we’re reminded that we’re not the first to sing the song. We come from a long line of Believers who have sung before us:

With those who sang here before
Let their memory open the door
And the new ones can shout if they will
With the old ones echoing still

I love it how describes the community faith, looking back to those who have come before, and looking forward to those who will come after, “singing” a song to the glory of our Lord.

3. Long, Long Way

Grace. If I had to describe this song in one word, that would be it. In this song, we find someone who has wandered from the faith. He didn’t mean to go far, necessarily: “It happened slowly, feet falling hard on the pavement, eyes reaching into the distance toward empty sunsets”. Now he finds himself far from home, and perhaps a bit embarrassed to ask for help:

This is the hard part
Stopping to ask for directions
Sketching with these dirty colors just where I am

Perhaps there’s still a bit prideful denial in him:

You might have heard me
Artfully dodging the buzz words
Scoffing at your insinuation
Of just where I am

Finally, though, he realizes that while he may feel forever away from the Lord, he’s never far from — and, indeed, can never escape — his loving Lord:

Didn’t I need to break out, want to be king
Wouldn’t I face the gallows if I return
Or is a man freely pardoned
As I have heard

Precious Jesus
Where can I flee from Your Spirit
You know me too well.

I’m a long long way
From where I left to begin this refrain
From where Your mercy and grace remain
From where you sit is it true
It’s not that far to You

Gorgeous, gorgeous song.

2. There is Only You

This song, while musically much different from “Long, Long Way”, has a similar theme. The singer is confronted by the Lord on account of divided loyalties, distractions that have, perhaps, taken the Lord’s place in his life:

Growing more uneasy
With every question asked
It seems You’re jealous of my interests
And the graven things I’ve cast

Finally, his heart is sufficiently pricked and he turns his back on his golden cows and declares “There is only You!”

Your wishes set in stone
I broke the first of ten
I cleared this temple out
Come take Your place again
There is only You, there is only You

The song is gentle reminder for us to examine the things in our life with a careful eye to determine if, perhaps, we’ve put those things on the throne of our lives, displacing our right Lord. The song closes by reminding us that the Lord is good to those who are faithful:

To a thousand
Generations
Of faithful men
You have shown Your favor Lord

1. Anything Genuine

There seems to be a theme running through the Poets’ songs. Our unfaithfulness in contrast to the Lord’s faithfulness. Anything Genuine begins by painting the picture of smelting gold to refine it.

To test this gold for it’s worth
Is the same as testing me
And the fire burns easily today

The net is the good that’s left
After the metal is refined
As I melt, look at what I’ve got

There’s an acknowledgment in that of the impurities, if you will, in our lives and the fact that the Lord allows testing to refine us into the image of Jesus, also known more formally by the term “sanctification”.

On the heels of that, the singer goes on to say that he’ll take anything he can get, whatever it is, as long as it’s from the Lord, as he knows he’s “getting fit for a faith that’s been tried”.

Falling from Your hands
Or falling from Your lips
As long as it’s from You, I know
I can take it, I can take it
And I’ll rejoice

This song is a great encapsulation of what our attitude should be in all things, whether good or bad. It’s a mark I don’t always (or often?) make, so this serves as a great reminder.

On a less… spiritual note, it’s just a good rock song. 🙂 As a bassist, I love hearing Miguel DeJesús’ bass line so prominently (at least to my ear), not only on this song, but so many others. He plays great lines that support the songs and don’t distract from the message (though there’s definitely a time and place for solos, amiright?!)

So there you have it. My Smalltown Poets top 10. It may change from day to day, and I certainly hope it will change with the release of this new album. I’ve been waiting and watching for a long time for this album, so here’s hopin’! 🙂