Guest Post: Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Originally posted by Alison here.

I bought Matt a CD for Christmas last year. It was a bit of a gamble. I had never listened to it before, I was banking on the fact that we own a previous album from the band and we both love it. The gamble paid off. Late summer and autumn has been spent settling into the music, then soaking it up and basking in its greatness as we listened to it over and over again. I think it's going to be one of my favourite albums ever. Welcome to this review of The Welcome Wagon's Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices For those who haven't yet come across The Welcome Wagon, the outfit is made up of a husband and wife, Monique and the Rev Vito Aiuto, accompanied by a killer band and choir and produced by Asthmatic Kitty Records. Vito's full time job is as a Presbyterian pastor, Monique is an artist. Neither are musically trained but somehow they have pulled off an amazing second album which, by my reckoning, is even better than their first. The beauty of the album comes not from new lyrics - Most of the songs are 'covers', adapted music and lyrics from The Cure, David Crowder, King David, Charles Wesley... No, the beauty of the album lies in its friendly musical style. The sounds and content evoke an image of brothers and sisters coming together in simple worship, which I gather was the Welcome Wagon's main aim. At the album's release Vito explained that Precious Remedies has a liturgical structure, plainly seen as the album ebbs and flows between confessions of sin, declarations of forgiveness, bold announcements of what Jesus has done, moments for Christ's people to share in love and support and even a sending out at the end. 

The Welcome Wagon themselves are the epitome of Christian hipster with their aesthetic, their embracing of old traditions, their glockenspiel, their celebration of community. The fact that they are Presbyterians. In New York. Guys. Did you see the Breakfast-At-Tiffany's animal mask in that video!? But then, even coated in five hundred hipster cliches, this album is amazing. I don't care whether they were hipsters before or after it was cool. I hope they don't either. They sound fantastic and they turn our attention to Jesus, which is definitely the best part of their music. This album has been a huge blessing in the lead up to Easter. I am really looking forward to playing Precious Remedies again on Easter morning and singing along to all my favourite songs with Matthew in our living room.


Track list I'm Not Fine ("I told you I was sorry, doesn't feel like it's enough") My God, My God ("Please be not far away from me, I have no source of help but thee") I Know That My Redeemer Lives ("He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King") Rice and Beans ("Worn through shoes, cheque may bounce") High ("When I see you take the same sweet steps you used to take") Remedy ("He is the one who has come and is coming again, He is the remedy") Would You Come and See Me In New York? ("I'm not mad, the past is through") My Best Days ("Those are my best days when I shake with fear") Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending ("The tokens of his passion still his dazzling body bears") Draw Nigh & Take the Body of the Lord ("Offered was He for greatest and for least") The Strife is O'er, the Battle Won ("Hallelujah!") God Be With You Until We Meet Again ("With his sheep securely fold you") Nature's Goodnight ("Trees now dressed in faded brown")

The album is available for purchase here, it's a steal at US$8 for the mp3s or US$10+shipping for a physical album to be delivered to your front door. I know that my redeemer lives. Happy Easter.

He Never Said a Mumbling Word

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
- Isaiah 53:7-8

He Never Said A Mumblin Word - The Welcome Wagon

Up on a Mountain Our Lord is Alone

Up on a mountain
Our Lord is alone
Without a family, friends, or a home
He cries, "Oo, oo, oo, will you stay with me?"
He cries, "Oh, oh, oh, will you wait with me?"

Up on a mountain
Our Lord is afraid
Carrying all the mistakes we have made
And He knew
It's a long way down
Do you know
It's a long way down?

Up in the heavens
Our Lord prays for you
He sends His spirit to carry us through
So it's true
That you're not alone
Do you know
He came all the way down?
So it's true
That you're not alone
Do you know
He came all the way down?

- The Welcome Wagon, Up on a Mountain. Listen here.

I've always been struck by the end of Tenebrae service on Maundy Thursday, when all the candles are snuffed out, the communion table stripped bear, the lights turned off and congregation leaves the building in darkness and silence. It mirrors the loneliness of Jesus in Gethsemane, and ultimately on the cross, when all his disciples have been scattered and fled, and the last Israelite - the true image of his Father - is cut off from the land of the living.

They Don't Sound Like Coldplay

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon was a delightful find for me last year, even though it took about two months after buying it to listen to it.

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon is the debut album of The Welcome Wagon, husband and wife team Vito and Monique Aiuto, and was produced by there friend Sufjan Stevens. In fact, the keen Sufjan fans out there might release that Vito is very same very for whom Vito's Ordination on Michigan was written for. Vito is the pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church a church he planted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, in 2005 (and I think is loosely connected somehow to Tim Keller).

One of the joys of WTTWW is that it is high quality amateur music. Although you can definitely hear the influence of Sufjan Stevens throughout the album (which isn't a bad thing), this is not two the work of two musical professionals. it is a husband and wife (and sometimes a choir) making music for the sake of making music. Indeed, the album took several years to produce and was done so across many different lounge rooms and bedrooms:

The Welcome Wagon began as husband and wife singing in the privacy of their home. Having little to no previous musical experience or training, Vito purchased a guitar with the desire to sing hymns with his family. With Monique accompanying on toy glockenspiel or harmonica, the two would amble through old hymnals, psalters and prayerbooks. Their inability to read music was no big issue; Vito simply made up new tunes to old words.

One of the other joys about WTTWW is that it's different to what a large segment of 'Christian music' sounds like. They are not another bunch of Christians trying to imitate Coldplay. "[T]his is precisely what sets them apart from the standard fare of contemporary liturgical music. It doesn't feign emotion; it doesn't pander to stylistic pretensions; it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is."

The first half of WTTWW is particularly good. With reflections on Jesus, Psalm 127, the crucifixion, WTTWW can be both moving and uplifting at the same time. The whole album has a good mix of original songs and covers for a new band, "from Old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic Catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths)", and a mixture of religious and religious songs. Although I feel that WTTWW lost momentum in the last six songs, maybe it will grow on me, and overall this is generally a very good album. It also comes with a fantastic album design made up of old-school Sunday School postcards and original artwork by Monique Aiuto.

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon - I'd give it 5 out of 5. And over Easter, I'll post up some of their lyrics on hebel. For the very keen, you can listen to all the songs online and read a commentary on all of them by produce Sufjan Stevens here.