Note: Special thanks to monnie1976 for inviting me to this three-part write-off, hosted by kristinafh. I missed out on part one, “Where Are They Now?”, but it’s just as well since I don’t own any CD’s by any artists we haven’t heard from since 1992 or earlier.

I had to think for a while to come up with an appropriate album to review for the “Like a Virgin” write-off. The idea is that we’re supposed to cover something that no one else has reviewed for Epinions yet. Since I write about Christian music (and not always the stuff on the popular end of CCM), I do this quite frequently on my own. So I wanted to write on something that just fit. And I came to a realization - what better subject than Miss Rebecca Smallbone, a.k.a. Rebecca St. James, who is practically modern Christianity’s spokeswoman for virginity? It’s a no-brainer.

Rebecca wasn’t always known for being the brash, confident young evangelist and pro-abstinence activist that she is known as today. She first got noticed on American shores with her self-titled 1994 debut, which mainly made her out to be Christian music’s latest pop princess - another Cindy Morgan or Amy Grant, but younger. Back then, the whole teen star thing wasn’t as common, and since I was 16 at the time, I was fascinated to own a recording by someone only half a year older than myself. In a way, it seemed like I grew up with RSJ - my musical tastes veered more towards edgy modern rock just as she released her follow-up album, God, in 1996. 1998’s Pray took a more sophisticated, euro-pop approach while maintaining a good amount of solid rocking power, and it gave my worn-out God tape a much needed rest. Then 2000’s Transform arrived, veering back towards the world of dance/pop music, but with a much more accomplished touch - it may have ripped off current rends at times that I would have preferred to leave alone, but darned if it wasn’t a tasty musical concoction! So as always, I’ve been looking forward to seeing what Rebecca would take on next.

That is, until I heard she was going to release a worship album. You could practically hear my eyes rolling back into my head when I read that bit of information. I was used to Rebecca assimilating whatever styles were currently trendy into her music, and I even acknowledged to myself that she tried a bit too hard sometimes to catch our attention. But she was being herself and writing her own songs, and almost everything she recorded was so well-done that I couldn’t fault her. However, I didn’t know if I could stomach a worship album from her at a time when it seemed everyone in Christian music had to put one out just to prove they were spiritually mature or something. In Rebecca’s case, what was the point? So many of her original songs were worship, even if they weren’t explicitly labeled as such. Why was this necessary?

Well, here I am listening to worshipGOD, and I can’t seem to make up my mind about it. The songs I recognize on this album are some of my favorite songs to sing during Sunday worship or before Bible study every week… yet I didn’t feel the need for yet another recorded version of “God of Wonders” or “Better Is One Day”. Rebecca is no stranger to cover songs, and she can always be expected put an interesting spin on them - just check out what she did with Rich Mullins’ “Hold Me Jesus” or Keith Green’s “Oh Lord You’re Beautiful” on Pray. The covers made a good supplement to past albums, but here, they’re the stars of the show, with a few self-penned numbers to fill in the gaps. Rebecca says these are some of her favorite worship songs and she had been wanting to do this project for a while (read: she’s not just hopping the bandwagon). That’s fine and all, but I wish some of her favorites had been more original choices. A few of these songs are suffering from major overexposure. That may be fine and well among the community of worship labels such as Vineyard, Integrity, Worship Together, etc., whose artists tend to borrow from one another quite frequently, but that approach tends to work better on live worship albums, where an audience can easily recognize a song and join in. As a studio project, worshipGOD mostly smacks of repetition. Even the title contains a title of one of her previous albums. Musically, it’s probably the least adventurous thing she’s done since her debut.

I know what some of you are thinking - this is a worship album, and shouldn’t be judged on the basis of performance, or how well I like the songs. Let me clarify - I don’t think that what I see as “drawbacks” to this album mean that it is less worshipful. But let’s be honest - most of the people who buy this album are going to be RSJ fans who have been looking forward to new music from her, not necessarily people who buy a lot of your usual contemporary worship music. RSJ’s music is known for being fairly energetic and well-produced, and her lyrics are known for being very straightforward and God-centered, not as personal. In that sense, it’s not as much of a stretch for her. But I think that’s exactly the problem - every past album stretched Rebecca artistically, and this one just seems to coast, playing it safer than past recordings, as if a mellower musical landscape somehow made the songs more “worshipful”. She didn’t feel the need to mellow out for her Christmas album - why here?

I guess that’s not an entirely fair assessment - the production is still fairly thick and there are a lot of pleasing elements behind each song. Something just isn’t right about a lot of the cover versions - it’s like the songs you expect to be mellow are aggressive, and the songs you expect to have a little more power to them just kind of float by on auto-pilot. It’s kind of hard to explain, so I suppose I should just get on with my usual description of the individual songs.

Let My Words Be Few
I wasn’t familiar with Matt Redman’s original version of this song when I first listened to this version. Then I saw Matt Redman in concert, and the intimate atmosphere and compelling chord structure of this song just blew me away. Now I appreciate Rebecca’s version more. It’s kind of odd to start the album out with Rebecca gently singing “And I stand in awe of you” (actually it’s more like “And I stand in aure of you”, due to her Australian accent) - it feels like you’re joining something mid-stream instead of at the beginning, but that may be her intent. The song doesn’t take long to pick up, and once it does, it gets extremely busy with tense strings and a chunky beat to propel it along. For some, Rebecca’s need to amp things up may disturb the calm nature of the song underneath, but in this instance, I think it works well. It’s a beautiful song, done either way, and probably the standout track on the album (which means it’s all downhill from here, sadly).

Song of Love
Keeping a similar tone to the pervious song, the strings pick up just as “Words” fades out, meditating over the chorus of what turns out to be a similarly powerful song. I think this one is an RSJ original, but I could be wrong. It’s got more of a mellow pop flavor during the verses, and doesn’t stand out as anything special, but then the chorus hits with a strong hook that suit’s the lyrics well - “The heavens declare you are God and the mountains rejoice.” The lyrics are easy to follow - pretty standard worship fare, and in some ways it’s aggravating to hear RSJ confine herself to that box when she’s “unofficially” written some meatier worship songs in the past such as “Universe” and “Go and Sin No More”. Still, this one would adapt very well to a corporate setting, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up in college groups and progressive Sunday services here and there before too long.

Breathe
Here we have the first of a few songs that is making its way onto the “overexposed” list. Something just isn’t quite right about the fact that Michael W. Smith and Rebecca St. James were on the charts with version of the same song simultaneously. It’s almost as if this one was chosen as a single because the other was doing so well. To be fair, I really like “Breathe”, and Rebecca handles it adequately enough, with a light electric guitar intro, a little bit of electronic noise to add to the ambience and keep with the flavor of Transform, and some decent harmonizing with herself on the chorus. However, I don’t really think the desperate need of the words “This is the air I breathe” and “This is my daily bread” really come across in the verses, which Rebecca sings rather plainly. The song also kind of falls apart when Rebecca tries to put in a bridge for the sake of following traditional pop song structure - a few lines from the song are just left dangling out in space without much interesting going on until the chorus returns. It’s something I don’t mind listening to, but I have to admit I prefer Michael W. Smith’s take from his live worship album - that song has an incredible power that makes this version seem sterile by comparison.

God of Wonders
This is one of my favorite worship songs - as LifeStar pointed out in his review of the original City on a Hill album, it’s a modern hymn. Having said that, I hope that no one ever tries to record this song again. At least not for a good ten years or so. Why? Because the original is so recent and doesn’t need improving on. Those familiar guitar chords, the powerful chorus where the lead singers from Third Day and Caedmon’s Call are joined together in blissful unison… it just isn’t going to translate well to your average solo record. I’ve heard Caedmon’s Call do it alone, I’ve heard Third Day do it alone… it doesn’t pack quite the same punch. Rebecca tries to change it up a little with a finger-picked guitar intro and a poppy “da-da-da” line during the chorus, which may make it more her style (she’s not one to do a straight-up cover), but I’m too attached to the original. I know the places where the intensity of the original rises and falls, and here, the whole song kind of hovers at a lukewarm level.

Lamb of God
Rebecca takes a more aggressive turn for the next original song. (I wondered when I saw the title if she was going to cover Twila Paris, but no, it’s just one of those generic worship song titles again.) I have to say, I really like the more aggressive electronics that introduce the song, which lead up to driving guitars and drums - this song would have fit well on Transform. It’s got more spunk and fervor than most of the album, in my opinion, even if the lyrics are fairly standard (and even repetitive) modern worship fare. Actually, now that I think of it, I could picture Twila Paris writing and singing these same lyrics, albeit with a more traditional inspirational backdrop. I wouldn’t mind so much if Rebecca released this one as a single. My only complaint is that it really has no bridge, and it’s over way too soon. It’s actually the case with a lot of these songs - they’re arranged just enough like the usual pop/rock album that I don’t have enough time to soak in the ones that really do grab me and move to worship.

Above All
Remember what I said above about how Michael W. Smith did it first and did it better? Same here. Alright, settle down, I know worship’s not a contest to see who can come up with the coolest rendition of a song and claim it as their own. In all fairness, it doesn’t belong to MWS either; he just popularized it last year. Rebecca’s version is more or less mellow pop with a little of Rebecca’s usual futuristic sound thrown in there to distinguish it from the usual adult contemporary fare. Again, I’m not really sensing the power of the lyrics in Rebecca’s vocal delivery. I’m sure the song is close to her heart, but the plainer pop style just isn’t working well for her.

Better Is One Day
Once again, Rebecca gives a nod to Matt Redman, this time by covering one of his better-known songs. In this particular case, less would have been more. Rebecca tries to rev this one up by making it bouncier and adding on an island-inflected vocal tagline of “One day, ay-ay”, and maybe I’m just a Scrooge, but I don’t think this song was meant to be bouncy and fast. I just don’t feel left in the same sense of awe, in meditation about eternity, as I do when singing along with the original version or the generally plainer renditions I hear in church. I’m not going to say that it’s wrong for Rebecca to try to modernize these songs, but in this case, I think she’s tasking away a key element instead of adding anything.

Quiet You
Another RSJ original (and I think this one’s the current radio single), this one breaks from typical modern worship in that it has a more interesting title, and it’s sung from the perspective of God, instead of to God. So is it really a worship song? Depends on your definition. Is Third Day’s “Love Song” a worship song? They put it on their worship album, so… ? Anyhow, this one’s well-done, and ironically aggressive, given the title. It’s a call from God for us to lay down our heavy burdens and allow Him to “quiet us” with His love - in other words, to calm our nerves and drown out the thoughts that distract us from Him. It fits into a worship service, if you take a more liturgical approach where worship is seen as more of a call and response between man and God. I kind of wish Rebecca had experimented more with that approach, to strive for more of a unique and personal spin on what worship means to her instead of just rehashing a bunch of songs that everyone likes. This would have been a good start.

More than the Watchmen
I can’t remember exactly, but I seem to recall that this song was a retooled version of a song from much farther back in Rebecca’s catalogue. Either that, or it’s a cover of a song she liked a long time ago, or something like that. Not having heard the original (if there is one), I can’t comment on what’s changed, but what I hear on this track seems a little bland to me. A mid-tempo drumbeat trudges along lackadaisically while a cello attempts to add a little bit of mood in the background, and Rebecca sings about longing for God to return “more than the watchmen wait for morning”. Unfortunately, that one line is pretty much the entire chorus, and nothing much about the song grabs me in comparison to past “longing for God to return” songs such as “Come Quickly Lord”. (I guess I’ve made it obvious that Pray is my favorite of Rebecca’s works so far). At least Rebecca pulls off a sharp transition into the next song.

It Is Well
This is a classic hymn that still resonates with a lot of people - as the best of them do. Rebecca didn’t know she was going to record this one for the album, until September 11th happened. Apparently she was supposed to track vocals that day and she just didn’t know if she could bring herself to sing anything, but this song summed up how she was feeling, so they worked up a fairly rocking version of it. I’ve heard this one done many times, generally in a more meditative style, such as the Audio Adrenaline/Jennifer Knapp duet from a few years ago or the near-acapella version from Church of Rhythm’s debut. Rebecca’s version is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful, given the subject matter that inspired the song (the original writer wrote it upon sailing across the spot in the ocean where all four of his daughters drowned). And while it’s musically fairly tasty, I’m not sure if it’s all that reverent. Maybe Rebecca’s vision is just lost on me; I don’t know. It’s an admirable take, and I’m glad she reached back far enough to do a hymn, but again, the mood isn’t quite right.

You
The album “officially” ends with a short ballad, the last of the RSJ originals (there’s the hidden track, but I’ll get to that in a minute). I get the feeling it’s more of an intimate prayer, Rebecca’s yearning to be more like God. Musically speaking, it almost feels like Rebecca’s been afraid to get more intimate on this record (though that could be argued for every record except perhaps a few songs on God), because even this track gets briefly into a rich climax of sound, with all manner of strings and so forth. And then, with the line “’Cause at the end of the day, You are all that remains”, the song ends on an unresolved note, barely clocking in at three minutes. A simple closing thought, but again, I could have used more time to really get into the mood of the song.

Omega (Remix)
I was tempted not to even comment on this one, but I feel I must. Sorry, Rebecca, but I’m sick of “Omega“, and I can’t understand your fascination with this song. It made for a nice benediction on the Pray album, and I was able to get used to your spoken prayer during the verses. Then it was overdone with an insipid radio remix and an inexplicable “rock remix“. When will it ever be enough? There are so many great worship songs in your back catalogue that would fit so much better if you decided to redo any of them here - why is this one so important to you? I know, it makes sense to close a worship service with the lines “May the grace of our Lord be with you/Now and always, may you stay blameless ‘til He comes”. I suppose I see your logic, but it’s not your finest work and I get the funny feeling you want it to be my favorite and won’t quit re-recording it until it is.

I suppose I’ve been a bit hard on Rebecca - she’s passionate about God and it shows much more clearly than it does through myself or most of the Christians I know. I can’t fault her for that. She’s wanted to do this for a while, and I’m sure her label’s probably held her back a bit (I’m surprised ForeFront let her get away with the Christmas album as early as they did), so perhaps this would have sounded a lot fresher in 1998. Heck, back then it would have been visionary, especially if she had stuck with her original plan to cover Delirious?’s “History Maker”. Come to think of it, I’m surprised that no Delirious? songs made the list, though I’m not going to fault her for which songs happen to fit her personal preferences.

You know what’s ironic? “Wait for Me”, which is probably the most attention-getting song of Rebecca’s career due to its theme of abstinence and longing for her mate, was probably my least favorite song from Transform. And yet, I’d like to see things go in a more personal direction. I feel like I’d be more led to worship by an outpouring of what God’s doing in Rebecca’s life instead of a rehash of the same old songs and lyrical styles. I wouldn’t hope for an entire album themed around abstinence, or even relationships, for that matter, but I just get the feeling that Rebecca’s playing it too safe. And I think that’s the last thing a young evangelist like her should be doing. That’s just my personal take - it’s not like God is going to work through this album any less than He did through her past albums. But I tend to respect her more when she’s starting trends rather than following them.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Let My Words Be Few
Good: Song of Love, Lamb of God
Decent: Breathe, Quiet You, It Is Well, You
Weak: God of Wonders, Better Is One Day, Above All, More than the Watchmen
Skippable: Omega (Remix)

Website: http://www.rsjames.com

Please check out the other participants in this Write-Off trilogy:

kcfoxy
bonniesayers
madtheory
ekidd911
rock_on
wiccyblackcat
dedemw
sleeper54
shaithis
monnie1976
arielssong
frazzledspice
mefreakboy
pmills1210
arthur.rubin
laura101801
flamepillar
lattechick
thevoid99
cletta1201
ariel10575
shadow_dream
bluehawq
faireheart
lynus
arielssong
tigger500
chad8246

Recommended: No