“I’ve Got Friends” by Manchester Orchestra, Sunday, August 28, 2022

Manchester Orchestra began as a project when lead singer Andy Hull dropped out of his Christian high school in Atlanta to study at home during his senior year. Hull grew up in a religious household; his father and grandfather both ministers. Hull went on to form a band with musicians who had a similar faith background. But on the band’s sophomore release, Mean Everything to Nothing, Hull assesses his spiritual trauma, critiquing  mainstream Christianity in the album’s twelve songs. Similar to the work of David Bazan and Pedro the Lion, Manchester Orchestra’s Mean Everything to Nothing is a classic in Ex-Evangelical deconstruction.

DIRTY ON THE GROUND IS WHAT I NEED. The standard evangelical teaching is that Christians and the non-Christian forces in the world are at war. There are constant temptations that try to distract Christians from their main duty in life: to worship God. Though definitions of sin vary, from a list of actions and thoughts one can do or have to an ethereal essence impossible to avoid completely, certain actions and abstinences are believed to reduce son’s power. Activities like church attendance, fellowship with other godly people (if from one’s correct denomination, it’s better), reading the Bible, attending supporting activities (such as youth group, prayer meeting, church camps, church socials), and partaking of godly entertainment (anything from a Christian bookstore for some; for others only a select part of those stores) were all great ways to avoid sin and build up immunity against it. But inevitably living in the world, some of its influences would take hold. In the case of Hull and his friends, Manchester Orchestra was influenced by the ‘80s music scene in Manchester; Hull took influence from The Smiths and their lead singer Morrissey.

 

I KNOW THEY DON’T WANT ME TO STAY. So far the Atlanta-based band sounds in line with every Tooth & Nail band’s origin story: a Christian background but a healthy distrust of organized religion and a taste for the forbidden fruit of secular music—New Order and The Smiths being popular influences. But Mean Everything to Nothing opens up with the confessional lyrics to the song “The Only One,” which questions, “Am I the only only son of a pastor I know / Who does the things I do?” With Manchester Orchestra there’s a level of trauma to Hull’s Christian upbringing that places the band a decade ahead of where Tooth & Nail artists and the space created in the the deconstructing Christian Rock sphere. Mean Everything to Nothing is an album about feeling like an outsider to everyone the speaker is supposed to be close to. That includes the family and Christian school friends who cannot accept Hull’s differing opinions, and this theme is particularly examined on “I’ve Got Friends.” The speaker unpacks his trauma in this song, recalling that he wasn’t allowed to play with the other boys when he was growing up out of fear that they would corrupt him. He then grows up with social issues, and his friends “don’t want him to stay.” Manchester Orchestra has some interesting thoughts on modern Christianity, but these thoughts aren’t unique; they’re as old religion itself. And trying to fit into a specific mold can be damaging. By fitting into the mold, you can have the right friends in the right places, but is it worth it?

Read the lyrics on Genius.