Review

Back in 1992 I had the opportunity to hear an advance release of an album that was destined to become one of the best worship albums I had ever heard in my life. This is not that album. That album was called “Strength,” and it was the sophomore release by a band called The Violet Burning. The rather ordinary alternative rock sound of their first release, “Chosen” did nothing to prepare me, or anyone else, for the delicate, evocative and worshipful genius of this second release. Sadly, that album is now out of print.

Now, many years later, The Violet Burning have gone back to re-record a few of the best songs from that phenomenal album, along with a few other out of print classics with a very coffee-house vibe. This album is “I Am A Stranger In This Place” and even if you’re one of the few lucky ones out there who managed to hear or even own a copy of “Strength”, you’ll still be impressed with the quality of the songs found here on this new recording.

Beginning with “Undone” (which originally appeared on “Strength”) the record sets the tone for the evening of worship captured on this disc. “I need you now more than then/ I need you to let your rain down on me/ let it fall all around me/ Wait, don’t hide/ Please shelter me in your side/ From where my strength is derived/ I am undone…in your arms I know it’s alright/” sings lead vocalist and songwriter Mike Pritzl along with tasteful piano fills and light percussion. Mike has said that, for him, going to an instrument is where he goes to meet with God. To worship God with music and words of devotion is something he’s done since he was eighteen years old, and the tone of reverence here is a testament to Mike’s statement.

If nothing else, this entire album is worth the price simply for the inclusion of the incredible, “Song Of The Harlot” which I can never manage to hear without weeping. “In the night, the harlot moves across the floor/ She turns the handle on the door/ One hundred eyes seem to look right through her/ Why she’s there? They’re not sure/ Behind her love she falls down to her knees/ Without a word she begins to weep/ And her tears they fall down upon His feet/ And she smothers them with kisses/ She dries them with her hair/ In my life sorrow has kissed my lonely heart/ Fear of man tears me apart/ And I’ve tried but many times I’ve loved the world/ Many times I’ve been the whore/ I’ve cried a million tears and many more/ So many times I have been the whore/ I will fall down on my knees/ I will sing “I love, my love”/ I will weep…I will sing…and my tears will fall down upon your feet/ Let me smother them with kisses/ Let me dry them with my hair/ If I could be/ Anyone at all/ If I could be anyone at all let me be the whore at your feet”

I once had a friend share with me how his seminary professor had assigned his New Testament class with the task of writing an essay about which character in the Bible you would choose to be, and why. My friend had originally written a brilliant and scholarly essay about how he would choose to be Paul the Apostle. Then, he heard this song, threw away the paper and wrote a new essay with the words to this song on the first page. “If I could be anyone at all, let me be the whore at Your feet.” Needless to say, it received the highest grade in his class, and he gained a little perspective about who is the greatest in the kingdom of God along the way.

This record tends to lean much more to the artistic side of worship. It might be difficult to work some of these songs into your regular worship set on Sunday, unless you’re willing to try something really different. Prepare yourself for things like metaphor, poetic imagery, personification and simile. But, in the end, prepare yourself for worship.

Review by Keith Giles