The Hold Steady – Our Whole Lives

This song highlights many of the contradictions present in mainstream Catholic culture. The focus Catholicism has on “faith and works” is often seen as leading, paradoxically enough, to a religion of easy absolution, where you confess, say a few hail maries, and then are free to continue sinning. In this song, a fairly old Catholic guy goes to mass early on Saturday night and donates some money to make up for his activities that night–substance abuse, leaving his children at home without him, and so forth.

It also reflects the repression-release cycle so prominent in popular critiques of Catholic dogma–in the same way that not letting kids jack off or priests marry leads to strange hangups and aberrant releases, this guy represses his bad side so completely that on Saturday nights he completely loses control.