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REVIEW: Rebecca St. James’ new album needs more Rebecca St. James

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Over the last five years or so, there has been a tremendous outburst in modern worship music. This was fueled by bands such as Sonicflood and Delirious, who have created strong worship projects.

Recently, however, there have been overwhelming amounts of these worship projects that try to imitate the style those early bands created. As a result, there has been an overflow of pop/rock worship albums featuring basically the same songs and very similar styles.

It almost seems as if every artist wants to get their version of “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble” or “God of Wonders” onto the Christian music market. Although I absolutely love the songs, exactly how many versions of them do we truly need?

With that said, there are still a few artists who have the ability to create these projects with a varied style that can capture you as if you heard the song for the very first time.

Rebecca St. James is one of those artists who decided to face this challenge with her new album Worship God. In some cases, she defeats it, but in others, she falls short.

The collection of songs features seven of Rebecca’s favorite worship choruses along with four of her own.

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If you are familiar with most of her work, I’m sure you can imagine what this album sounds like: filled with plenty of programmed effects, edgy guitars, drum loops and, of course, Rebecca’s bold and passionate voice.

One of the songs that works for her include the album opener, Matt Redman’s “Let My Words Be Few.” She adds enough elements to give it an edgy, rock feel that truly displays Rebecca’s best work.

Likewise, “More Than the Watchmen,” written by Jeremy Casella, is a great tune based on Psalm 130:6, which proclaims, “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

All of her original work, including the ironically loud “Quiet You with my Love,” “You,” “Song of Love” and my personal favorite, “Lamb of God,” are very enthusiastic and fervent. These tracks can be easily considered the highlights of the project.

However, some of her songs, such as the single “Breathe,” “God of Wonders,” and “Above All,” just fail to portray any significant changes to the way they were originally recorded.

It makes me wonder why she didn’t just replace these songs with more of her own worship melodies. In fact, most of her past hits can be considered inspirational or worship songs.

There is no doubt that she can compose great pieces of work, and I would much rather hear those than another rendition of “Above All” that clearly does not fit in.

Overall, the album has its plusses and minuses. Although great at times, the lack of creativity on just a few songs prevents it from fully reaching its potential. For that reason, I think true fans will embrace Worship God, but others will pass it by.
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