Squint

[Image: 'Squint' Front Cover]

© 1993 Warner Bros. Records Inc.
CD, Cassette

Sections:

Track Listing

  1. The Lament Of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Fredrick IV (4:02)
  2. Bannerman (3:14)
  3. Smug (4:22)
  4. Jesus Is For Losers (4:19)
  5. The Finish Line (5:25)
  6. The Moshing Floor (4:01)
  7. Easy Listening (3:42)
  8. Curses (3:55)
  9. Sock Heaven (4:46)
  10. Cash Cow (A Rock Opera In Three Small Acts) (5:38)

About The Album

From Creation '94 Press Conference, Agape Farm, Mt. Union, PA, Andrew D. Taylor of QRSTUV, June 29th(?), 1994:

Steve: ... the songs on it came together probably more quickly just as far as--I hadn't actually done any writing on my own during the time I was with [Chagall Guevara], so when the band started falling apart, a lot of the songs came very quickly. Some of the songs actually, in some ways, were maybe even like a reaction and a follow-up to what the band had done.

...

Audience: Pick a song--Squint in one word.

Steve: Uh, it would be "Squint." No--I summed it up I think in an article in four words: "Jesus is the answer." The older I get, the experiences over the last five years, the more I'm convinced of that, that apart from Jesus, I don't get life. I would not have the faintest idea how to live it.

I suppose the events surrounding Kurt Cobain's death drove that home to me afresh in that, I liked their music a lot, and I liked what he did lyrically a lot. I thought he was a really good lyricist. I think I was hanging around with some friends and one of them said, "how can anybody commit suicide?" And I was actually thinking, man, I'm surprised more people don't.

When you look in the black hole and you see nothing, what's to keep you from that? That's why I don't get it. Apart from God, I don't see how life could make sense to anybody. I suppose that's the message of the album as much as anything.

From Steve Taylor Pre-concert Interview, David Wang, June 30th, 1996:

David Wang: Squint went back to a little of the satire and humor of the previous albums. Was that a reflection of things in your life at the time, or was it that you just came back with a fresher outlook?

Steve Taylor: Yeah, I did have a fresher outlook. I certainly had, now having the experience of being in pop music and seeing that side of things gave me just a broader outlook on everything. One of the things I found out was that, unless there's a really strong sense of mission to what I'm doing, I don't care to be a musician. I like music, but if there's not something driving it, there's not a point.

Chagall was a great band. Our goal was always just to be a successful band, and at the end of the day that wasn't enough. So Squint came very quickly. Probably Chagall helped to prepare the way for something like that, but it was very definitely a record that I was making as a Christian as opposed to Chagall, [which was] sort of a group of Christians getting together to make a record.