If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something
| If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something | ||||||||
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| Studio album by Rebecca St. James | ||||||||
| Released | 22 November 2005 | |||||||
| Recorded | 2005 | |||||||
| Genre | Christian rock | |||||||
| Length | 50:40 | |||||||
| Label | ForeFront | |||||||
| Producer | Tedd T., Shaun Shankel and Matt Bronleewe | |||||||
| Rebecca St. James chronology | ||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Jesus Freak Hideout |
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| Christianity Today |
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If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something is the eighth studio album from Rebecca St. James. This album features a rather significant style variation. Retreating from the Nichole Nordeman or Joy Williams style, St. James has taken on a more rock-driven anthem (similar to secular acts Evanescence and Alanis Morissette). However, even in the particularly edgy "Alive", Rebecca St. James never deviates from the Christian message that has driven all her songs from the beginning. The album includes the hit singles "Alive" and "You Are Loved".
St. James co-wrote 11 out of the 12 tracks on the album, with the songs "God Help Me" and "You Are Loved" being written solely by the singer. St. James wrote "God Help Me" on her 27th birthday and says of the song, "I love singing this song because to me it’s an essential thought of the Christian life... 'God help me... I’m not enough!'" The album's first single, "Alive", is about how God can refresh you. She commented, "I love that this song is the first single from the album because it really represents where I am in my life right now. I feel over the last few years that God has really refreshed my soul. He’s done a lot of work in me personally in just re-vitalizing me as well as re-energizing me in a musical/ministry sense."
The title song "You Are Loved" was inspired by an old family friend. St. James says,
"This is a song that’s very close to me. It’s written about a childhood friend of mine that I grew up with in Sydney. I fell out of contact with him after leaving our Christian school to move to a different state. I ran into a mutual friend years later and asked how our friend, Daniel, was doing. This friend told me that Daniel had really fallen away from God and that he’d been abusing drugs as well. As I was thinking about what I wanted to write about on this album, he very randomly came to mind—and I felt that this ‘random’ thought was actually placed there by God. I had the concept... 'If I had one chance to tell Daniel something, what would I say to him?’ The message I felt God really laid on my heart was to tell him... 'You are loved.' This is a song for the prodigals—which is all of us. God is the father that has His arms open wide waiting for us. He wants us to run towards Him and He will run toward us. It’s a song of hope and a message my generation needs to hear. ‘No matter where you've been and what you've done... you are loved.' From this song came the album title—and really the key theme of the project.
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Wikipedia