James Albums (13)
What The Critics Say
Seven years is not an extraordinarily long time between albums for bands in the new millennium (some bands take considerably longer), so only those who pay attention closely might realize that James split and reunited in the seven years separating 2001's Pleased to Meet You and 2008's Hey Ma. Apart from the lyrics -- the title track opens with an overt 9/11 reference, as Tim Booth sings "now the towers have fallen" -- Hey Ma is such an extension of the band's signature sound that it's possible to think no time has passed at all, yet that isn't quite accurate. Not that the band went out on a low note, but James do sound revitalized, energized by the time apart and, perhaps more importantly, sounding connected to the time at hand, making music for a world in turmoil that needs more voices of protest and hope. Parallels to the fledging years of James cannot be ignored, as the band came to be during the pre-Blair and pre-Clinton years of the '90s, when there was a serious strain of seriousness within rock & roll, thanks in part to the crusading of U2. James shook this stiffness a few years later when they collaborated heavily with Eno, but here they reconnect to the crusading spirit of their earliest work without abandoning the sonic adventure of their late-'90s albums. This means that Hey Ma is intriguing and infuriating in equal measure, as Booth does have the tendency to raise his voice too high in protest. That may rub some listeners the wrong way, but perhaps in an affectionate way because there's a certain charm in how Booth has no concern about whether he goes too far, either in his lyrics or vocalizing. In 2008, there are many bands that attempt the kind of grand, sweeping sound as James -- think all of the post-Radiohead groups that are equally indebted to U2 but are graced with the personality of an Oasis knockoff band -- but James do have more quirks in their sound and plenty of quirks in Booth, who is always willing to act like a fool if it is in service of the greater good. These are the things that make Hey Ma a welcome comeback even for those listeners who may never have been big James fans -- after all, even if they're not quite to your tastes, it's nice to know that James are out there taking chances, unconcerned whether they succeed or not. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Darkk Studios Presents: Slave One'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 12
Label Midrange Publishing Group
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Getting Away with It: Live'
Release Date 5/21/2002
Tracks 22
Label Import
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
One of Britain's beloved pop bands, James, officially called it quits in December 2001 after founder Tim Booth announced his departure weeks earlier. You could say it marked an end of an era -- a bittersweet end of the heyday of Madchester. The double-disc Getting Away with It: Live captures James' last evening together, the final show on their farewell tour hosted in their working-class hometown of Manchester, England, and a remarkable look back at some of the band's shining moments from their 20-year career. Getting Away with It: Live is celebratory throughout the entire album. Booth is typically sweet, talking to the audience between songs while adding a dash of English wit. Selections from their global smash Laid go over well; the harmonies of "Sometimes" are heartwrenchingly beautiful. "Out to Get You" breathes similar life, and Booth heaves a sigh in the process. Andy Diagram's surprise appearance on the rumbling good time of "God Only Knows" picks up the pace, while the classic "Johnny Yen" is an extra bonus. Former guitarist Larry Gott is eventually added to the musical fray, alongside newer members like guitarists Adrian Oxaal and Michael Kulas, leaving the dynamic of the show to exude a powerful warmth. James' musical prowess on the anthemic "Born of Frustration" and the 11-minute sonic storm of "Sound" are great representations of what made them a brilliant pop band in the first place. Their energy is infectious, particularly on the swan song "Sit Down." No one else has given a punch to the gut with a smile quite like James, and Getting Away with It: Live commemorates that. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It's not so much that James weren't expected to make yet another good record; when 2001's Pleased to Meet You was released, they hadn't made a truly subpar record since the late '80s. But it isn't just another good James record -- it's their best. It's their tightest, freshest, most contemporary batch of songs, weatherproofed to stand the test of time. From the dizzily uplifting "Space," a Brian Eno-influenced and produced song (sure sounds like his voice is in the chorus, too), to the glacially sparse ballad "Alaskan Pipeline," the perfectly titled record is fresh-faced enough to sound like a band high on being in a studio together for the first time, but the material and the execution is too focused, too mature to sound like a rookie effort. As with the title track on 1993's Laid, an album highlight is buried near the end. This time it's "Getting Away With It," a song that represents the remainder of the album with a solid tune -- with some of Tim Booth's finest, most meaningful lyrics that aren't necessarily preachy -- and well-placed layers of synths and strings that accent an otherwise merely good James song. To wit, there's a power and a heft throughout that the band only hinted at previously. A band with a dusty best-of and nine previous studio albums isn't supposed to do this, unless they're the Rolling Stones. James' tenth makes you wonder what all the fuss over U2 and R.E.M.'s rebirths are about. And with this clutch of alternate reality Top Ten singles strung together in the disguise of a flowing record, they're making the modern pop charts (in the U.K. and especially the U.S.) look hopelessly feeble. Songs of adulthood, parenthood, and addiction have rarely sounded this exciting. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
More of a manic fever rant than an album, Stutter is so grotesque and spasmodic that it rams you into a corner until you can do nothing but choke down its home-brewed indie-guitar arsenic. Thin, spiky, jagged folk music. Songs constructed like the Fire Engines having a few beers with Patti Smith as C.S. Lewis is screaming obscenities at small children. What's really at stake here is not the band's first attempts of Next Big Thing potential, but rather an extraordinary disaster of disagreement. As if a lunatic in his own home-built asylum, Tim Booth is a mere bystander to his wild vocals while the rest of the band watch Gavan Whelan have an absolute fit on -- what sounds like -- four drum kits at once. This is shoddy, shameless chaos. Nothing more than a terribly produced mess of tragic rock-star baiting and deliberate discordance. An amazing debut. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Going from the folk skullduggery of Stutter to the lavish club steps of Goldmother to the introspective beauty of Laid, James have never been predictable. The band's progression has delivered a seemingly inconsistent but impressive body of work, and Millionaires is no exception. Crisp, shiny, accessible pop songs such as "Crash" (sounding, oddly, like 1990's manic "Come Home" and the bittersweet, Laid-era B-side "The Lake"), "I Know What I'm Here For," and "Afro Lover," seem designed to go for Top 40 gold. For a band like James, this is unusual -- they've always seemed like the freaks and geeks of the school of popular and "credible" music. While it's not necessarily a bad thing for these outcasts to try to fit in, for at least half of the album it's exactly that: The flat, overproduced "Surprise" and the aimless "Dumb Jam" ignore the hook-laden nature of the band's past heights. Fortunately, the album's first half positively shines while taking this same populist approach. "Hello" succeeds with its hushed, electronic cries; "We're Going to Miss You" sounds like one of Midnight Oil's lost classics, simultaneously bitter and triumphant. Best of all, "Just Like Fred Astaire" somehow encapsulates every delirious high one feels when first falling in love. Essentially, the album two disparate halves: the former, an ecstatic stab of triumph and love, the latter, a mired, confused slab of dulling mediocrity. Indeed, Millionaires is as odd and unexpected as James' overall discography. With a little personal song programming, one can make it sound like the freaks and geeks knew what they were doing the entire time -- they might be a bit lost at times, but they have the creative heart that the musical jocks, cheerleaders, and hooligans would never, ever, own themselves. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Working with ambient-rock demigod Brian Eno can have an effect on a dearly innovative British studio team, as it has on James with two previous ear-boggling efforts, both with Father Eno at the helm. Whiplash, James' seventh album in several busy but broken years, still resounds with ambient Eno aesthetics, where even signature silences mark time in terms of sound. Old hand at synthetic pop and psonicadelia, Stephen Hague keeps the Eno wave alive with spacy zen minutes on the synth in "Watering Hole," as well as strange house dance gyrations on "Greenpeace," a happy, creaky piece. It's argued that Tim Booth sounds too much like Al Stewart but 1) Al Stewart sounds great, so? and, 2) no he doesn't really, but the energy-factor point is well taken. "Tomorrow" would be a great song sung by, say, Eddie Vedder or James Brown, but great vocal energy is a curious element to blend here among these complex quicksilver musicsmiths. One of the better vocally-driven tunes is probably the sardonic, techno-silly "Go to the Bank," which winds up being the weirdest cut on another adventurous outing for James. ~ Becky Byrkit, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
As Brian Eno's sometimes all too precious liner notes explain, when he and James worked together first in rehearsals and then in full recording sessions on Laid, a conscious decision was made to work on a variety of improvisations just to see what would happen. Wah Wah is the result, one of the more uncommercial albums any band of its stature and its accompanying major label has had a hand in releasing. Those expecting 60-minute maelstroms of free noise or recitations of obscenities or the like are in the wrong place, but definitely compared to the beautifully structured and precisely produced Laid, Wah Wah is much more a series of explorations in sound, sometimes quite fascinating ones. The general focus of Laid towards an evocative, restrained attractiveness and moody melancholy holds here as well, more immediate numbers with full lyrics from Booth sung in his fine voice mixed with more open-ended instrumental or wordless vocal jams. More than a few songs could have easily fit on Laid without a worry, such as the slow building "Pressure's On," easily a cousin to Laid's album-starter "Out to Get You," and the solid, techno-tinged trip "Honest Joe." Meanwhile, "Tomorrow," in re-recorded and even more warmly epic form, later became the excellent lead track on Whiplash. One tune, "Say Say Something," shares title and inspiration with the similarly named Laid song but takes a much different direction, with what sounds like Indian violin contributing to a slow-paced, serene wash of sound. Some songs are by default much more fragmentary than others, lyrics just dreamed up of the top of Booth's head, the rest of the band working around a rhythm loop or quietly rolling rhythm. Overall Wah Wah makes for a good listen both as a companion piece to Laid and on its own understated merits. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After having become superstars in the U.K. with songs like "Sit Down" and then undergone an acoustic American tour opening for Neil Young, James took a consciously quieter, subtler turn with its follow-up to Seven, Laid. This turned out not merely to be a nice way to undercut expectations, but a creative benchmark for the group, arguably its artistic peak. While there had always been a folky, rushed element to the band's work in its earliest days, the now-sextet, following the departure of trumpet Andy Diagram to concentrate on the Spaceheads, here focused instead on understated, moody compositions. Part of this approach no doubt had something to do with Brian Eno's production work, and certainly it's another feather in his cap. While his work with U2 combined with James' own seeming assumption of that band's throne in big rock terms could have resulted in The Joshua Tree redux, that didn't prove to be the case. Admittedly, a couple of songs are specifically aimed at arena-level singalongs, including lead single "Sometimes," which almost drowns under its own weight and speed, and the title track, a celebration of love and lust that ended up giving the band a surprise stateside radio hit. But Tim Booth generally avoids Bono's melodramatics in both hushed and soaring mode, his ruminative singing sounding more like the calm reflections after energetic action, the band's quiet soundscapes a perfect combination of Eno's ear for space and vastness and the group's own abilities. Strong tracks are legion, including "One of the Three," allegedly about British hostages in Lebanon but much more accurately a sharp, harrowing meditation on Jesus and apparently meaningless sacrifice, and the low-key beauties of "Out to Get You" and "Knuckle Too Far." But the best punch is right at the end -- the heartbreaking "Lullaby," a piano-led sigh of regret and wistful hope, and "Skindiving," Booth's near-wordless keen at his most affecting, floating over the low-volume shuffle and bite of the band. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Following the breakthrough success of their previous outing, James released Seven, a record that married the ambitious scope of the lyrics with a grand, anthemic feel. Horns give songs like the lead-off "Born of Frustration" and the surging "Sound" a certain majestic grandeur, sweeping without being overblown. Lead singer Tim Booth is in fine form, lending passion to the proceedings, yet maintaining an intimacy. They don't totally abandon the more jangly, folk elements of past albums; it's still there noticeably on tracks like the lovely "Don't Wait That Long" and the shimmering, sardonic "Next Lover." Other highlights include the dramatic "Ring the Bells" and the resolute title track, which is propelled by Andy Diagram's trumpet, Booth's assured vocals, and a thumping rhythm. Seven might not be completely embraced by older fans, but it's a confident, artistic step and a fine entry in their catalog. ~ Tom Demalon, All Music Guide
