Worship God is the seventh studio album by Rebecca St. James, released on 26 February 2002.[1] It is her highest charting album to date, peaking at No. 94 on the Billboard 200. The album produced the hit singles "Song of Love" and "Breathe".
Writing and development
Unlike her prior albums, St. James only co-wrote four out of the eleven songs.[2] Because of its worship genre, the other seven songs are standard worship cover songs. These songs are Matt Redman's "Let My Words Be Few" and "Better Is One Day", Marie Barnett's "Breathe", City on a Hill's "God of Wonders", Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche's "Above All", Jeremy Casella's "More Than the Watchmen", and the hymn "It Is Well".[2]
St. James says "Song of Love" was partly inspired by the lorikeets outside her grandparents' home in Australia.[3] "Lamb of God" was written and vocally recorded in just an hour and a half. St. James says of the track, "My favorite moments in songwriting are when God miraculously drops a verse, or a chorus, or even a whole song into my lap. It was definitely that way with this song."[3] The song "You" was written while St. James was on vacation in Australia.[4] "It Is Well" was recorded on 11 September 2001.[5] The album also includes a bonus remix of her 1998 song, "Omega".
The album was solely produced by Matt Bronleewe, except for the "Omega Remix", which was produced by Tedd T. The string arrangements for this album were done by Jeremy Bose.[6]
Music structure and lyrics
St. James describes the entire album as "passionate, edgy pop/rock".[2] Lyrical content is mainly worship songs about God's love.
Both Jesusfreakhideout (JFH) and AllMusic gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.[1][2] JFH says, "Rebecca St. James has outdone herself on Worship God. She has set a new standard for modern worship here. Miss out on this project and you may miss out on an incredible worship experience", while AllMusic wrote "Worship God is not just another album latching onto the [worship] genre's popularity. It is a reflection of Rebecca St. James' lifestyle of worship and one that will not quickly leave CD players."
Chart performance
The album is St. James's most successful to date. It is her only album to peak inside the top 100 on the Billboard 200, at No. 94. It also peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's Hot Christian Albums chart.[8]
Singles and popular songs
"Song of Love" was released to Christian radio in 2002, as well as a physical double-A side single with "Wait for Me" (from Transform) on 8 April 2003.[9] The song proved to be extremely successful in her home country of Australia, where it charted at No. 3 on Australian Christian radio's 2002 Year-End Charts, and No. 1 on the Australasian 2002 Year-End Charts.[10] The song has also been featured on every Rebecca St. James compilation to date (except The Early Years), and was included on WOW Hits 2003.
"God of Wonders" and "Let My Words Be Few" peaked at No. 19 and No. 35 respectively on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart.[11] The former was also included on The Ultimate Collection. The latter was released as a single in Australia, where it peaked at No. 41 on their 2003 Year-End chart. It also charted at No. 16 on the Australasian 2003 Year-End chart.[10]
"Quiet You with My Love" was released as a single in the UK where it peaked at No. 12 on their 2003 Year-End Charts.[12]
Promotion
St. James embarked on a Worship God Tour in 2003. The set list consisted mainly of songs from Worship God, but also featured some earlier songs.
Songs from Worship God have also been performed on her Adoration Tour,[14] the If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something Tour,[15] and the Worship Revolution Tour.[16] An entire taped concert from the If I Had One Chance... Tour can be found on her 2007 CD/DVD release ALive in Florida.
Songs from Worship God have been released on many compilations over the years. Here is a complete list of songs from the album featured on other releases.
Songs That Changed the Church: CCM... "God of Wonders"[33]
Greatest Hits... "Song of Love", "Better Is One Day" and "Breathe"[34]
Worship For the Family: 35 Top Worship Songs... "God of Wonders"[35]
DVD
Also in 2002, St. James released her first DVD, Worship God. It featured music videos of "Wait For Me", "Song of Love", "Reborn", eight audio clips from Worship God, an interview, photos, a "My Australia" featurette and more.[36]
