Sixpence None The Richer - This Beautiful Mess [LP]

It's a beautiful piece of heartache. This Beautiful Mess represents all that is worthwhile in art. Somewhere in Matt Slocum's little brain, there was a beautiful experience; something precious and rare - something most of us do not possess. Call it cultural knowledge or enriched intellectuality. Maybe he just has a gene that possesses musical genius. This Beautiful Mess is a conundrum that is powerful, dynamic, and quietly loud (indeed it has it's moments of release). There are so many parallels drawn within this masterpiece of music. We get the pain of humanity vs. The love of God, the pain of God's love vs. The pain of our understanding of divine love. Look at the paradox within the title - it continues throughout the album. In a certain light, it teaches us the circumstances in life which one must go through before we realize that life without God is, indeed, a paradox. No amount of soul-searching or humanistic experience or knowledge will ever recover what a lost cause humanity will always be. Which is why, in our mess, things become beautiful - but only if we decide to take the difficult, painful road of faith in God. There are many stories in this album, only you won't hear them. What you will hear is the emotion, the knowledge, the life that was gained as a result of those stories. I don't know what inspired Matt to write a song like "Love, Salvation, the Fear of Death." What I do know is that that mountain of a song is immersed in what I would call a real, deep, and healthy existence. Matt has lived what most of us wish we could simply understand - a life with meaning. That is what This Beautiful Mess reaches to tell us - there is meaning, but you'll have to go through a lot of hell - a lot of mess - before you can look at your life and proclaim "this was good. This was beautiful."