Rebecca St. James - Worship God

Sounds like … Rebecca tackles seven of her favorite modern worship songs (and a few originals) with her trademark alternative pop/rock sound.

At a Glance … not a particularly creative worship project, but the album production and Rebecca's vocals make Worship God an enjoyable listen.

The latest album from Rebecca St. James, Worship God, is something of a milestone for her career. For starters, it's her first album title to exceed one word since her 1994 self-titled U.S. debut. One could also consider it a milestone since Rebecca has been making music now for a little more than ten years (she released Refresh My Heart in her native Australia at the age of 13). In that sense, Worship God is Rebecca's way of exploring her musical influences and inspirations, in this case praise and worship music. Seven of the album's twelve tracks are covers of her favorite worship songs over the years, with four original worship songs written for this album. There's also a remix of her 1998 song "Omega," which originally appeared on the worship album Listen Louder a few years ago. If you're familiar with Rebecca's alternative pop/rock style and can imagine her adapting well-known modern worship songs to it, you know exactly what to expect of Worship God. This is both the album's greatest strength and weakness.

On the one hand, Rebecca's so good at what she does, you can't help but like her versions of these songs. Reunited with producer Matt Bronlewee from her Transform album, Rebecca continues with the formula that's worked so well for her since her 1996 God album — ethereal pop, edgy guitars, programmed effects, lush strings, drum loops, and of course Rebecca's beautiful and passionate vocals. These elements all are used effectively on "Let My Words Be Few," which is different enough from Matt Redman's sparsely arranged original for Rebecca to call it her own. Similarly, Rebecca adds her artistic imprint to Jeremy Casella's "More Than a Watchman" and the classic hymn "It Is Well With My Soul," which she appropriately enough recorded on September 11, 2001 in response to the tragedy. I suppose these two tracks stand out because "More Than a Watchman" isn't as well-known a worship song, and the adaptation of an old hymn to a modern pop sound is always interesting since there's more room for artistic interpretation.....

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