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 Steve Taylor Bio / Squint Press Release, September 1993:

"Yeah, I must admit that I'm pretty happy with the results," says Taylor. "For some reason, I didn't have to dig around for inspiration or sweat about the themes to write on. I was able to get the songs on tape before they could start talking back." [...] "I was originally going to call this album 'The Kitchen Sink,' since I was ready to try anything in the studio that didn't involve doing dishes afterwards."

From InnerView: Steve Taylor, Visions Of Gray, November 1993:

[O]riginally, I was gonna call the album, The Kitchen Sink. I was gonna go, whatever... I was just gonna try anything. And, in many ways, that's what we did. "Cash Cow" was just trying to take the thing sort of to the limits of absurdity. That's why I put it on at the end. 'Cause, on On the Fritz, I put "Lifeboat," on cut seven and a lot of people told me, especially near, said, "Can you put that at the end next time so we could hear it a couple of times and then we could skip over it easily?"

From Steve Taylor, The Lighthouse, November 1993:

"In making this album, I think I was originally going to call it The Kitchen Sink. If there was an idea that I had, I wanted to try it, I didn't want to decide if it was an alternative sound or not. The record just kind of came out the way it came out. I also wanted to make sure that people didn't need an encyclopedia to figure out what the songs were about. I tried to make sure that these songs weren't so obscure that nobody would have a clue."

From Steve Taylor: Living Life in the Open, CCM Magazine, February 1994:

"On this record, if there is a theme, it's that Jesus is the answer. I don't know how to put it anymore artfully, because I'm absolutely convinced of it afresh. Apart from Jesus, I don't know how people do it. It just worked out that way, I can't say that will happen with future records, but that's what I most want to communicate with this one. There's not much sense in doing Christian records, if you're not convinced of that, or at least periodically re-excited by it. It's a simple message, but the ramifications are way broad."

From Creation '94 Press Conference, Andrew D. Taylor, 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: No More Clowning Around. Sort Of, Syndicate Magazine, October 1994:

For all the hoopla surrounding The Missing Years--Taylor retired from Christian music, resurfaced as a member of the mainstream guitar band Chagall Guevara on MCA, the band split up (critics loved 'em, retail ignored 'em), then Taylor cut a solo deal and re-entered the Christian music industry--some feel like Taylor should just pick up where he left off, business as usual. But the fact, quite simply, is that there would have been no Squint if there had been no Chagall Guevara.

"Yeah, musically and lyrically, Squint could not have existed. As difficult as the band experience was, it's hard to imagine life without it. All of us artists think the world revolves around us, every decision makes a difference. Entering a democracy where I'm not the man in charge was good; it was painful, as well, almost like going back to school."

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.