If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something (Special Edition)

Album Review

Throughout her career Rebecca St. James has been a bit of a musical chameleon, dabbling in electronica, folk, and traditional praise & worship settings. But like all good vocalists, she rises to the occasion and adapts with great ease to whatever the canvas presents to her. This time around she finds herself in the trenches of the highly polished, extremely commercial alternative rock sound throughout "If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something." The driving sound of "Alive," "You Are Loved," and "Shadowland" brings to mind tonal qualities normally found in Linkin Park or Coheed & Cambria, but only if they were filtered through having tea with the Cranberries with lyrics emerging from a wholly Christian perspective. As on most of her releases, St. James' pleasant and inoffensive presentation throughout the 12 songs could easily find their way onto the soundtrack or background music found on any prime-time teen soap opera on the UPN or WB networks. And the music is so contemporary and the lyrics sometimes so ambiguous, it's easy to forget where her message is coming from and what it's all about. [The CD/DVD edition includes bonus visual material, including live acoustic performances, concert performances and a photo gallery.]