Nostalgia & Heartache in Starflyer 59’s Gold

Gold - Starflyer 59

Last week, I announced the “Chrindie 95” project, a collaborative writing project celebrating some of the great alternative and underground Christian rock that was released two decades ago. I’m pleased to announce that my first contribution, a remembrance of Starflyer 59’s Gold, is now live.

Hopefully, this excerpt will help explain why I wanted to write the piece in the first place:

Indeed, Gold features some of Martin’s mopiest, and therefore, most soulful songwriting ever, particularly on the one-two punch of “Messed Up Over You” and “When You Feel The Mess.” (Oh, and the epically downbeat “Next Time Around” on Gold’s companion Le Vainqueur EP.) And again, let me reiterate that this soulfulness isn’t about anything “spiritual” per se, but rather, all about heartache. Heartache so bad, in fact, that Gold’s liner notes needed to include a reference to Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

This may all seem trivial, but realize that in 1995, I was a painfully awkward, hormone-addled, romantic train-wreck just entering college. I had countless crushes on girls who never knew because I was too shy and awkward to tell them. And a part of me felt guilty for feeling that heartache because it seemed so… un-Christian and worldly. As a good youth group kid, my heart and mind should’ve been on “Godly” things, not the latest girl to tie my heart up in knots.

It was a fun piece to write — I always relish the opportunity to dive back in to a favorite or influential album — and hopefully, I’ll be able to contribute one or two more pieces to the project.

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