A dozen songs unfolding on about a minute shy of an hour's worth of music,
Fire of Love is arguably the most Jesus-oriented of
Andy Pratt's very Jesus-inspired spiritual music. On it he hits lyrical themes that are tremendous, from the country flavors of "I Will Buy Your Broken Heart" and "I'm Special" to the unique and intriguing "Overture: A Human Life - Time and Chance." But where on other recordings
Pratt hits it out of the park, here the wonderful music gets bogged down again with the message. If played as an entirely instrumental work it would be totally amazing -- not that
Pratt's voice isn't of great value. It is as special as the song here recognizes, titled appropriately enough, "I'm Special." Where the message goes sideways is in the Biblical introspection that evolves into preaching. It doesn't capture the majesty of the music behind it -- or, as mentioned, some of the phenomenal lyrical themes that get lost in the translation. Recorded in Germany in 1995 and 1996 by producers Dan Cutrona,
Pratt, and
Jos Haagmans, the musicians and sounds are top-notch, totally different flavors from what emerged in the
Resolution and
Motives days. "I Will Buy Your Broken Heart" and "I'm Special" are included on the compilation
Heaven & Earth, and they are two fine compositions capturing this artist in an intriguing space after his flirting with rock stardom and moving his life to another continent.
Pratt describes in the liner notes how he recorded "the basic piano or guitar and voice" and added the other tracks. "My God" is not the social commentary of
Jethro Tull's
Ian Anderson; these are
Pratt's hymns, his praise to the creator. If the words and voices were removed,
Fire of Love would be a masterful album of extraordinary instrumentals and stunning performance. As one component of a large body of work,
Fire of Love stands apart and gives
Pratt's fans a glimpse of his personal evolution. Though it is religion that inspired the recordings, minus the religion the music reaches larger heights and achieves its initial goal. Without talking about God
Fire of Love would more effectively praise Him. Some superb moments are to be found in "Love Has No Limit." A prayer is that the artist might reconstruct this for the masses: as a pop/jazz album it has Grammy potential; as a religious essay it may find itself an important work forgotten.