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XTC - "Dear God" [mp3]
Skylarking [Amazon] |
| The song that brought XTC to a wider audience in the States beyond pockets of alternative radio and critical appreciation here and there, "Dear God" didn't even originally appear on the album in America, instead being a B-side. But everything from a dramatic video to an incident where a student forced his high school staff to play the song over the PA helped bring it to the fore, making it one of the most well-known songs about atheism ever recorded. Certainly its lyrical bluntness pulls no punches — while there are flashes of Andy Partridge's wit at points, in many ways it's a bitter, to the point indictment of a cold deity 'always letting us humans down.' The song, though, wouldn't be quite so memorable if it wasn't for the music — acoustic then rich electric guitar leading into a steady arrangement that turns into a slashing, dramatic conclusion. Arguably XTC have had much memorable songs, but in terms of raw emotion balanced with musical edge, it may just be their strongest.
Source: allmusic.com. |
dictionary.com:
atheism
blunt
lyrical
indictment
