#71 REFUGE IN YOU - Hungry

Free Bonus Content: A teaser video for next week's post from Sarah Reeves in Andy's Extras 2.

It may surprise you to know, faithful reader, that I wasn't always the world's premiere Top 100 Worship Songs blogger. Nope, I had a life before my current career as the internet's #1 source for all things worship.(1) For a brief period of time back in the mid-oughts, I was actually a professional day trader.

(1) Those rankings are subjective.

For those who don't know, a day trader is someone who rapidly trades stocks during the day in order to make a little bit of money. Which I did somewhat successfully for a couple of years. I also used to religiously watch a show called 'Mad Money', where a crazy guy by the name of Jim Cramer would give his stock recommendations to his lucky viewers. His big schtick was him yelling BUY! and hitting a buzzer when he liked a stock.

Today I am channeling my inner Jim Cramer and I'm giving you all a full BUY! BUY! BUY! recommendation on the 2001 album Hungry, put out by Vineyard. Sure, I realize that a lot of you already own this album (or CD, or whatever), but I continue to get a bunch of new visitors each week, and I'm sure that many of you may have missed out on this gem.

Jim Cramer and I both give Hungry a BUY!, BUY!, BUY! rating

Song #71 on the top 100 list is Refuge In You, off the aforementioned Hungry CD. And while it's the 71st best worship song of ALL TIME, if you go to iTunes, Refuge In You is only the TWELFTH most popular song off of the Hungry album. Think about that - if this song is good enough for me, a certified worship song expert,(2) to put on his top 100 list; yet it can't even crack the top 10 on it's own album, then that album must be pretty darn good.

(2) The nature of said 'certification' is unclear. 

Back when I reviewed another Hungry song, Your Name Is Holy, I said that Hungry is the Sgt. Pepper's of modern worship music, and I officially named it as the best worship album of ALL TIME. You can see my list of the 5 best worship albums by clicking the link above. I'd say it's worth the click - there are pictures of two of my cats when they were kittens and a whole bunch of 'Call Me Maybe' memes.

But seriously, if you don't already own Hungry, you should go to iTunes right now, type in "Vineyard Hungry" and buy it immediately for just $9.99. As I mentioned, Refuge In You is the 2nd song off of Hungry to make the top 100 countdown, and there's at least two more songs to come, but that could easily be a half dozen.

Back in my days as a full-time youth pastor, I used at least 8 or 9 of the songs off of Hungry for our worship time. But before you dive right into that, make sure you don't make the mistake of confusing Hungry the CD with Hungry, Hungry Hippos the game. I did that once, and while youth group was fun that night, I don't think we got very far spiritually. And I don't even want to mention the time I confused Hungry with The Hunger Games. We lost a lot of good kids that night.

Imagine having to explain to a parent that you just wanted to play 'Breathe' for worship and a kid ended up with an arrow in his arm.

Now, as to the song itself. Refuge In You can best be described as a 'rocker', slapping the listener in the face from the very first note and not letting up for the next 4 minutes. After listening to the whole thing, one can imagine that the drummer ends up with blisters on his fingers from the friction caused by his frantic playing throughout.(3)

(3) Yes, of course it could be a female drummer. But c'mon, we all know that chicks can't be drummers - any more than they can be construction workers, race car drivers, or pay for their own birth control.(4)
(4) Please excuse the biting political commentary, I'm trying to drive traffic here from the Fox News website.

The funny thing is, the Hungry album is chocked full of hauntingly beautiful, slow, contemplative songs like 'Breathe', 'Child of God',  'Be the Centre', 'You Are A Holy God', etc. Songs like Your Name Is Holy and Refuge In You stand in stark contrast to those songs, and make you think there's no way they are from the same album. I guess that's what makes Hungry such a great album. So much so, that it was voted the #1 worship album ever by one prominent internet worship music expert.

Well, enough blabbering and silliness, it's time to get to the song. But before we do, I want to remind you again that next week is a NERF week (see explanation here),  and I will be discussing the music of Sarah Reeves. As a preview, go to Andy's Extras 2 for her wonderful, soulful rendition of Holy Spirit/Set A Fire. Trust me, it's worth it.

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