Anthology

Senior year of high school, I used to JAM to Thrice’s music. I was borderline obsessed (OK, totally obsessed), yet it was probably one of my favorite times to look back on. I know most of my friends haaaaate Thrice, mainly as a reaction to my love for them, but I can’t help but still semi-worship the band–for the albums I loved in high school as well as the two (soon-to-be three) that have released since then.

This is why: there’s something incredibly therapeutic about Thrice’s lyrics. Mainly it’s the anger in some of their earlier stuff. I think the first time I ever cussed was when singing along to “Silhouette” on The Artist and the Ambulance–I said “hell.” Those songs helped me express my own frustration. And then there were songs that comforted me in my loneliness (also angry songs) and there were songs that spoke to my growing passion for justice (“Broken Lungs,” “Lost Continent,” “Cold Cash and Colder Hearts”) and then there were those love songs (“The Whaler” and later “The Weight”).

My favorite songs have always been, though, the allegorical ones. Lead vocalist/lyricist Dustin Kensrue (who I still kind of have a schoolgirl crush on) was obsessed with CS Lewis and integrated a lot of his ideas into his songs. And then there were those songs that were basically the gospel in key of G.

Listening to these songs–all of them for all those moods–makes me feel alive. I feel a kinship with Dustin; I feel closer to God.

I wrote in a paper last week how listening to music is an act of prayer for me. Oh, how true this is.

Tomorrow Thrice’s final album releases–“Anthology.” It’s a live album with songs as old as the band itself. I’ve been listening to it online, and I’m in love with it. Hearing all those songs together–ones I loved in high school and forgot about, as well as the songs just a year or so old–is incredibly moving and makes me want to pray those songs again.

So I’m going to.

All night I’ve been listening to an “anthology” of Thrice’s music.

This is my prayer.