Exciting Christmas Music Part Three: Bill Mallonee

I've already written of my admiration for Bill Mallonee, lead singer of the now reformed (hooray!) Vigilantes of Love. A sometimes brutally honest combination of folk, rock, sixties pop and often Dylan-esque lyrics, Mallonee's music (and particularly his lyrics) have the potential to move and challenge in equal volumes. This makes his Christmas album, fan often surprisingly political festive treat ("Like congress, the President lies", and "amid the conflict and confusion, of winning and then losing, brother against terror for oil") which will, at the very least, get you thinking.

Released in 2005, Yonder Shines the Infant Light features seven new songs, and five collected from various Vigilantes EPs during the nineties. The album manages to surprise almost constantly. Opening "Knocking at your Door" is a gentle, worshipful folk song: "Amid the fears and frustrations, tumults and tribulations, of all of the whys and wherefores/ it'll all flee as the night vanishes with morning light/ and then He comes a-knocking at your door". This, you expect, should set the scene for an introspective folk album, especially with the next track entitled "Holy Mother Mary". Against all expectations, however, this opens into seven minute (too long!) piano-rock ballard supported by driving drums and full band, attacking small town and big nation political hypocricy. A version of "Come thou long expected Jesus" and another original (discussed in my previous post) are sandwiched between two beautiful instrumentals."Dayspring" is all chiming guitars, subtle piano and icy percussion: a glockenspiel brining a note of hope to a tune which seems stuck somewhere between there and despair. "Natvity", meanwhile, features sterling guitar work from Bill, as he picks a sparse tune which evokes both a baby's cry and falling snow. The pianowork here is evocative of Tori Amos, and is once again top notch.

The remaining original songs are equally as impressive. "Sing Angel Choirs" speaks of the frustration which dogs the Christian life: "Yeah i'm picking through pieces of yesterday's boasting, hold them up to the light and examine them closely/ My love is a field that the weeds have grown up in, my earth is all scorched with my wreckage and ruin". Similar themes run through (both versions!) of "On to Bethlehem": "You know how fickle my heart is, prone to wander my Lord/ Yeah we talk but it's at arms length always got one eye on the door/ God wraps Himself up in human skin, for those who want to touch/ And God let them drive the nails in for those of us who know way too much". This is without mentioning the best song on the album, "Every Father Knows", which I'll include the lyrics to, as any summary would do it injustice. Lyrically, it is probably my favourite Christmas song of all time:

Well the angels sang the sweetest song echoing refrains
The shepherds were up to something maybe drunk again
No there probably wasn't any snow on the ground at the time
Though the greeting cards show that sort of thing with a warm and fuzzy rhyme
And the stable is neat and tidy the hygiene is five stars
And the planet it spins lonely as i step out of this bar

Now some are lost in shopping malls and some on battlefields
And some are lost in suburbs and some on capitol hills
Some are lost on terminal wards or in a nursing home
And some are equally as lost in between their headphones
But whatever your coordinates on your map of shame
Whether close or far away we're all lost just the same

The birth of births was like a death Under that hallowed star
Still every father know and cares Where his sons and daughters are

So you may wake up a bit confused with the ache that's in your heart
Doesn't matter if you got there by choice or got there by default
And every birth shall come with tears and with youth there is a cost
Jesus what's it like to grow up in the shadow of a cross?
Where You take on more than You could know more than I'd want to say
I put you there a long time ago when i do it every day

I don't think this is anywhere near Mallonee's best album (see "To the Roof of the Sky", "Audible Sigh", and "Permafrost"), but his lyricism remains top notch. Even his over indlugence on "Holy Mother Mary" has to be forgiven when he admits: "I know this thing is as long as shit, and by now you're ready to hit skip, But I didn't do it for you no I did it for me". As long as you keep letting us hear the finished results, Bill, I'm more than happy to indulge you.

UPDATED: You can listen to a new Christmas song from Mallonee at his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/billmallonee) or download the above album at www.volsounds.com .