Mercury & Lightning: When Poetry and Faith Collide

If you have only scratched the surface of Contemporary Christian music, the name John Mark McMillan may not mean anything to you. But you have almost definitely heard one of his songs – particularly “How He Loves”, popularized by David Crowder Band. Why don’t we immediately associate McMillan with his own creation? Well, if you’ve heard “How He Loves”, you may know that there are two different versions. The one most know is David Crowder’s version, which includes the line “Heaven meets Earth like an unforeseen kiss”. This line has been a point of controversy amongst the Christian music aficionados, because of the fact that McMillan’s original line is “Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss”. Which puts a very different image in the mind of its listeners, and was decidedly less popular in church services and youth group meetings. Therefore, the original song was more or less sidelined, McMillan himself along with it. However, despite this criminal robbery of the spotlight, McMillan has been producing music continuously since. I personally had never listened to his music until very recently, when I was browsing JesusFreakHideout.com, a Christian music site with consistent and well-written music reviews. Their five-star reviews are few and far in between, so when I’m looking for a new album to sink my teeth into, this is often where I would go. I was perusing this page on the site when Mercury and Lightning caught my eye. Something about the art style and the name intrigued me. After my first listen, I knew I had unboxed something very special, and extremely unique. After quite a few more listens, I realized I had found my favorite album since Air for Free by Relient K was released. Mercury & Lightning is a poetic and introspective look at the Christian faith, one that asks a lot of hard-hitting and very important questions that all Christians have to wrestle with.

Mercury & Lightning

The title track of the album sets the stage for what is to come. One important thing to note here is a quote by McMillan himself (which I am taking from the review I read of this album from JFH): “In Roman mythology, Mercury is the god of financial gain, commerce, communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves. If something is hard to catch, understand, or lock down, it’s known to be ‘mercurial’ or ‘like Mercury’.” This explanation helps to explain the usage of the word Mercury throughout this album. In this song, the opening track, he tells us that he’s been chasing “mercury and lightning”, two things that are worldly and fleeting. There is a feeling of emptiness in this pursuit that he explains to us through the lyrics and the driving beat of the song. A potent repeated line in this song is as follows “Lately I’ve been thinking about/what’s gonna happen between you and I/I need a new religion/or I need a new lie(life)” (the internet seems divided as to whether this word is “lie” or “life”). This drives home the idea that a life lived for financial gain and without God is destructive and unsustainable in the mind of the speaker. The messages of this album are potent and clear, but they also aren’t necessarily what makes this album float above so many other good Christian albums with equally good messages. The thing that really sets McMillan’s work apart is the stunningly beautiful use of imagery that he uses throughout the album, this track including the interesting and fantastic line “I swear I’ve heard the echoes of a voice/Like a dream that you feel but you don’t remember/I’ve known it ever since I was a boy/Like a word on the tip of my tongue”. He describes for us a feeling that cannot be explained through conventional methods – only through the painting of an image. This is something that McMillan will continue to do throughout his album – use words as paint to create a picture that helps us not just hear words, but see pictures and feel things that we never could have without his creative use of the English language.

Wilderlove

This next track is also quite fascinating, although it would rank lower on my list relative to some of the other brilliant gems on this album. This song talks about what McMillan calls “The Wilderlove”, which is a very fascinating and different take on God’s love, and how it impacts us as travelers on this Earth. It is quite an interesting song, containing the aforementioned imagery, although less of it than in the opener.

Gods of American Success

This is a personal favorite on the album for me. Talk about imagery – this song has metaphors, smilies, personification, and is dripping with sensory detail. This song’s message is very clear as well – once again, it is pointing to the fact that the pursuit of “mercury” is fleeting and empty, and that the drive to find wealth and prosperity can easily become its own religion, sacrificing all of the things that you do, and put your love, sweat, and tears into to the “Gods of American Success”. I can’t praise the creativity of this song enough, and the sheer enjoyment one gets out of listening to it (it is incredibly catchy and showcases some funky instrumentalism). McMillan shoots truth bombs out of a cannon loaded with allegory and picture-perfect accuracy about the state of mankind. If this is not the best track on the album, it is certainly competing for that honor.

Enemy, Love

Not only is this album vivid, introspective, and fascinating, it is also very personal. This song asks the same question many Christians have asked: “Why did Christ sacrifice for someone like me?”, but it asks it in a way that I have never heard before. This song is a look at a life, and a dialogue towards God about what the speaker has been given, and how he feels like he has given back inconsistently. It is a prayer, and one that will stick with you for a while after listening and reading the lyrics. Now, I think it’s important to mention one aspect about this album that I haven’t yet, because this is the first place where I have felt that is relevant. It is no secret if you’ve come this far into this post that I love this album, and that I have a lot of respect for McMillan as a lyricist and as an artist. However, if I were to say that there is a flaw on this album, it would be this: his vocals are sometimes not very clear, and can be very difficult to sort through. On a first listen, it is almost impossible to tell what he is saying on some occasions. This does not detract from the album all that greatly, in my opinion, because after repeated listens it’s easy to separate the lyrics in your head and hear what he’s singing, and even sing along! But if that is a deal-breaker for you, this might not be an album you will enjoy as much.

Unhaunted

This is probably the biggest offender for the flaw I just mentioned on this album. This is one of my favorite songs on the album (although maybe I have been saying that too much), but McMillan’s annunciation is not nearly as clear as it could be, which can make understanding the lyrics a bit difficult. But onto the good stuff – this song is really cool, although even when you know what McMillan is saying, it is still difficult to understand the message of the song (which I am very okay with), because it is a very abstract picture. I won’t try to interpret it, because I feel like I would be drawing my own conclusions, but the imagery, style, and questions this song raises are fascinating. Give it a listen!

Persephone

Another abstract song, one that discusses a few different interesting themes present on the album. One theme this song really drives home (which has been previously mentioned and will be emphasized even in even greater detail in upcoming songs) is the idea that the speaker had ideas of who he was supposed to be, and who he would become, and that the person he is now is very different from who he thought he would become. He tells us that this old idea of himself is dead, and that he needs to break free of this preconception to embrace who he is now, who is “greater than the man of who I once dreamed”. The line “I don’t want to dance anymore/with dark nostalgia” is one of my favorite lines in a chorus on this album because it’s just such an interesting picture. Another beautiful and entrancing piece by McMillan worth listening to countless times.

Death in Reverse

On most posts I have seen about this album, Death in Reverse has been the favorite of most people. It personally would not be my top song on this album, but it is close. Death in Reverse is not just a song, it is a spiritual experience. I recommend putting on headphones, lying down, closing your eyes, and listening to Death in Reverse (along with the outro, e s r e v e r n i h t a e d) uninterrupted. This album is not a “church song” album, but this is the closest thing to a worship song on this album. However, it is far more personal than a normal worship song, taking us into McMillan’s heart, and continuing the theme from Persephone about the past and present version of himself. However, the most interesting part of this song is, once again the imagery, and then, surprisingly, the outro. I don’t want to spoil anything, but what McMillan does with the outro musically is really cool and creative. With the outro, this song is the longest on the album, with a full 7 minutes and 7 second runtime, but worth every second. Certainly one of the most memorable entries here, this song is one I have listened to again and again and will certainly be doing so in the future.

Body in Motion

I know it sounds juvenile, but the most accurate way that I can describe my feelings of this song would be to say simply that it is incredibly cool. McMillan relates the Christian faith to a very unconventional source: Newton’s Laws of Physics. He uses a very well-understood biblical concept from throughout the Bible, one example being Proverbs 26:27: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.” In other words, what goes around, comes around. The poetic mesh of faith of science here is really interesting, and although there is a lot more to say about this song, I’d say to give it a listen yourself rather than continuing to discuss it.

Raging Moon

This song, honestly, didn’t do it for me as much. I do like it a lot, but I think it gets overshadowed by a lot of the other songs. For the sake of length, I won’t say that much about this song. I will say, though, that McMillan’s usage of imagery remains on point throughout this song, despite the fact that I’d place it on a lower pedestal than some of these other songs.

No Country

This song, however, is another contender for favorite song on this album. The theme presented here is the idea of feeling homeless, isolated, and alone in the world, suddenly becoming a wanderer. This is another song where I don’t feel qualified to interpret the depth that this song presents, but it is another gem in the treasure trove that is this album. Worth multiple listens and a lot of thought.

Magic Mirror

I keep mentioning that songs are contenders for best song on this album, and that’s because all of these songs are just so incredibly good. However, for me, this song tops all of them. This is another song to put on while wearing headphones and lying down, because, at least for me, it is a spiritual experience. Musically, it is beautiful, with flute trills and synth punctuating the lyrics with chill-inducing potency. Listening to this song for me is an out-of-body experience. I don’t feel this song needs interpretation or dissecting – it is simply poetry in its purest and most beautiful form. I won’t say anymore, but I would highly recommend giving this song more than one listen. For me, it is the best when I am in a pensive, thoughtful mood, and listening to it is an incredibly personal experience.

Fumbling Towards the Light

This is another lyrically cool song. I think it is fantastic, but I personally would put it lower on my list of favorites (only because it is competing with such incredible pieces). This song is another one that focuses on similes and metaphors to drive home a point, and that point is that without God, we are simply animals, and even with God, we still have the bodies of beasts with the souls of the divine. The analogy is very interesting, well-developed in the song, and memorable. Musically this song has the same unique style that the other songs on this album boast, but the admission that mankind is a pack of wild animals trying to find their way to God is a really difficult one to present. McMillan, however, does it beautifully, and leaves the listener with a lot to think about.

Nothing Stands Between Us

And now we come to the end of the rabbit hole that is Mercury & Lightning, and McMillan has saved some of his best work for last. The first song on this album, the title track, mentions a speaker’s chase towards mercury and lightning, and Gods of American Success focuses on the chase for mercury. But what about lightning? This song returns to the title track thematically, but culminates all of the themes and doubts and hopes and fears McMillan has presented for us throughout these fourteen tracks in a beautiful finale that is worthy of all of the buildup and questions asked throughout the album. This track contains one of my favorite lines of poetry perhaps ever in its bridge: “You always find me/in between the thunder and the lightning”. I love thunder storms, always have. And there is that moment after lightning and before the thunder of anticipation and excitement that one who loves the storm always feels. Here, McMillan associates that feeling with God’s love and His beauty. In order to fully appreciate this song, you have to have taken the journey with McMillan through the album, because it takes all of the themes and ties them up, pointing toward heaven, and, in a poetically woven tapestry of musical beauty, gives the life of the speaker back to God, where it has always belonged.

Mercury & Lightning is a beautiful experience, one that I will remember and relive for a long, long time, and one that everyone should have. You see the world through a new pair of eyes, and feel the beauty of God’s love along with the doubt in the heart of man. I highly recommend listening to this album more than once, because there is so much to sink your teeth into here that one listen won’t cut it. As I have said before, the biggest thing that sets this album apart from most contemporary Christian music is the imagery. Because, while songs with lyrics like: “I’ve been redeemed/I’ve been set free/Hallelujah/Jesus has rescued me” have their place, nothing can quite compare to “I saw the outline of my maker dancing backlit/by the rays of your incandescent light” (Magic Mirror). Hopefully you enjoy this album as much as I have – it is something well worth your time to try out for yourself!