High culture and low standards

A few days back I posted on guilty music pleasures, the idea for which didn't materialize in a vacuum. Any of you who have ridden in my truck in the past 5 years know that I have an annoying habit of listening to talk radio constantly; I've sort of abandoned listening to music altogether. Here in Ukraine my talk radio equivalent is the weekday broadcast of World Soccer Daily. I catch the 2-hour podcast the following morning so I am provided with spunky football discussion Tuesday through Saturday. Much like talk radio, this leaves a weekend gap with no iPod talker-tainment.

It was in the midst of this gap on Monday evening that I opted to listen to our entire Relient K catalogue. This isn't the first time that I have listened to them - I actually spent good money to purchase their album "The Anatomy of a Tongue in Cheek" from iTunes when we first arrived - but it struck me how much I enjoyed their lyrics. Quickly, I realized that they are sort of guilty pleasure for me. They may not seem as bad as some of you readers' disclosures but I am a bit embarrassed for liking them so much for the following reasons:

1. A number of their songs (and many of their more popular ones) are related to high school life and being 30 years old, that could be construed as pathetic on my part.


2. They are nothing if not bubble gum punk and my 23 year old self would beat me severely for appreciating their tasty harmonies.


3. They are in that no-man's-land between new/cutting edge and classic - sort of like Poison in '92 - where I appear to be trying to be cool like the young kids, but struggling a few years behind.

I just can't help it, for me they are a great mixture of irreverence, wittiness and poignant commentary. The lyrics are entertaining and I can honestly say that listening to them constitute a spiritual experience. I guess the real embarrassment comes from finding a teenage, Christian, pop-punk band as inspiring as I do... like calling a dime store novel great literature. Oh well...

Do any of you have this problem?