Dar Williams, My Better Self (2005)
Listen closely to the 13 songs on Dar Williams’ My Better Self (2005) and you can hear an echo of the heart’s cry of an entire generation. “Teen for God” evokes vivid memories of summer church camp, followed by disillusionment. “Help me know four years from now / I won’t believe in you anyhow / And I’ll mope around a campus and I’ll feel betrayed / All those guilty summers I stayed, but / Then I’ll laugh that I fell for the lure / Of the pain of desire to feel so pure / And I’ll bear all the burdens of my little daily crimes / And wish I had a God for such cynical times.” Her clear voice and compelling honesty reveals a heart yearning for love, redemption, and an almost desperate hope that someone will be there for her in the end.