Friends, I have an incredible experience to share with you. The "raw rock" band Showbread has released two concept albums that put the story of redemption into music and words better than anything I can recall. Anorexia and Nervosa are albums that require their stories to be experienced while listening. Each album has a story in its liner notes with time cues that explain when each part of the story is to be read with the music. Anorexia is the story of Anorexia, a girl with one mission: to build a tower as high as possible and to reach the sky. "'When I am in the sky', she thought, 'I will finally be happy.'" Thus starts her tower-building journey. Along the way she is encountered by a vulture, a pig, some flies, a goat, and a lamb. The music seamlessly accompanies the story and it becomes an all-encompassing experience of multiple senses. Nervosa is the story of Anorexia's sister Nervosa who desires to plunge into the depths of the earth. "'When I venture into the depths,' she thought, 'I will finally be happy.'" Along the way, she is encountered by the same creatures but with often-different results than her sister. The feeling of being entrenched in complete depravity while still hearing that "knocking" voice of the Lamb of God is amazing. The crux of the entire project is a song written by Reese Roper of Five Iron Frenzy fame. This is something you don't want to miss... and you have to listen to the album while reading the story or else you just won't get it. It takes a time commitment (around 1 1/2 hours) for sure, but trust me: it's worth it. I will leave you today with the lyrics of the track I described previously: the Lamb trying to break through the horrible voices of depravity that accompany Nervosa's trip into the Earth:
Before there was anything, I loved you endlessly.
There are no words to make way for this truth, this love for you inside of me.
And if I paint a sky with bronze or blanket you with stars,
It’s not enough to prove to you, this love inside my heart.
What if I knit you together inside your mother, with artistry...
Crafted in my very image because I need you here with me
What if I gave everything just to have you close to me?
What if my love was the only truth?
Would you believe it could set you free?
There isn’t anything that you could ever do,
Not death or life, nor depth or height can ever take my love from you.
There is no greater love than this: that a man should lay his life down for his friends.
And though I have, I’d do it all again.
Regenerative are my bones and my skin, my nerves are dismayed by intrusion.
Yet if you are gone, for short or for long it all aches with no sought restituion.
I would do anything for you, it’s obvious and in plain view,
Like the life that I’ve laid before you: everything that I’ve done is for you.
So look for me with open eyes, knock and I will open the door.
I have loved you before there was time and I will love you for forever more.
Before there was anything, I loved you endlessly.
There are no words to make way for this truth, this love for you inside of me.
And if I paint a sky with bronze or blanket you with stars,
It’s not enough to prove to you, this love inside my heart.
What if I knit you together inside your mother, with artistry...
Crafted in my very image because I need you here with me
What if I gave everything just to have you close to me?
What if my love was the only truth?
Would you believe it could set you free?
There isn’t anything that you could ever do,
Not death or life, nor depth or height can ever take my love from you.
There is no greater love than this: that a man should lay his life down for his friends.
And though I have, I’d do it all again.
Regenerative are my bones and my skin, my nerves are dismayed by intrusion.
Yet if you are gone, for short or for long it all aches with no sought restituion.
I would do anything for you, it’s obvious and in plain view,
Like the life that I’ve laid before you: everything that I’ve done is for you.
So look for me with open eyes, knock and I will open the door.
I have loved you before there was time and I will love you for forever more.
