James today revealed Busted, the second track to be taken from their Better Than That EP out on May 18th. Initially previewed in their summer shows in 2017, including Castlefield Bowl in Manchester, the song didn’t make the cut for their as-yet-untitled album due later in the year, but deemed too good to be lost.
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Whilst Manchester celebrates the tenth anniversary of the release of St Jude, it’s often forgotten that on the same day James released their comeback album Hey Ma, their first for six and a half years, and which also hit the top ten. We take a look back at the album and reproduce our review at the time from the One Of The Three James archive site that we run.
It was a cold January night back in 2007 when I got a call from Tim Booth. I was hanging up washing in the spare room of my flat. We hadn’t spoken for a year or so on the phone (I still run his website and Facebook page) so I was curious. He explained that there was going to be a big announcement in a day or so about some tour dates and could I leak the word out via my fan site that was still active. He then proceeded to tell me about all the new material they’d written. These were the days when a band would reform and play the hits and then stop.
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Exclusively aired on Steve Lamacq’s 6 Music show this afternoon, the lead track lays out the challenge “You can do better than that,” he sings. “Hit me again and show me where I’m cracked” The production has a very modern sheen to it, as these are the first products revealed from their sessions with Wolf Alice and Alt J producer Charlie Andrew. Better Than That includes Tim’s trademark falsetto in the verses with a soaring chorus complete with uplifting backing vocals in the tradition of many of their best-loved tracks.
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Thirty-four years on from his band’s spindly beginnings, Booth remains beloved, at the helm of a lodestone indie rock band who show little sign of slowing down. James’s 14th album, released in March, came within a whisker of knocking Adele off the No 1 album slot. This broad UK tour is virtually sold out. Twenty-one songs into a 23-song set, then, it’s not hard to grasp the enduring appeal of this band … James are, without a doubt, the indie rock dream made flesh – if that dream means continuing returns more than serious paradigm-shifting.
3/5
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(review from Even The Stars)
James warmed up for their fifteen date UK tour with an intimate rehearsal set at Music Bank in Bermondsey in front of a specially invited group of twenty fans. As well as running through the whole of their recent number 2 album Girl At The End Of The World, they included some rarities in the set including one that hadn’t been played for seventeen years.
Music Bank is part of the Biscuit Factory complex just off the Jamaica Road in south east London. Dodging the Millwall fans pouring out of the nearby New Den, the competition winners congregated and were led up via a maze of staircases and production lifts to the top floor studio where the band had been beavering away for days rehearsing for the tour. The majority chose to sit on the cushions placed on the floor ready to witness a unique performance that most of the James fan-base would give up an arm and a leg for.
Before we start, Tim tells us that Adrian isn’t present today as his other band are playing a festival in Buxton (and there’s lots of terrible Buxton-related puns later on) so the performance becomes even more unique as a result. Saul appears dressed in what looks like a sailor’s hat and is immediately on good form. In a band full of creative sparks, his is often the most maverick one, his multi-instrumental talents allowing the band to take their songs to different places, approach them from oblique angles and reinvigorate them.
This up-close and personal experience gives us a real insight into the workings of the band. There’s jokes about who starts a song (“It’s Adrian” to laughter), playful interchanges between them, Tim asking his sister to go and get a manager to “print out Bitch”, checking the Arsenal score and at one point Tim opening and closing curtains to ensure the seated fans aren’t blinded the sun setting over the adjacent railway lines.
And the music? One of the problems with listening to a record at home is that you often, as a non-musician as I am, find it difficult to distinguish. The raw mix, very different to that we’ll experience in the halls of the land over the next three weeks, brings this into even starker focus. There’s parts of the new album that the natural assumption is that it’s guitar or keyboards when it’s Jim on bass or Andy on trumpet and it’s fascinating to see that. One of the reasons Girl is such a powerful record is that the bass has come to the forefront and live that comes across too, both in the sound, but also in the way Jim moves as he delivers the killer lines.
Alvin and Waking are played in front of a fan audience for the first time, the former’s French lyrics now don’t seem as strange as they did on first hearing and live it promises to be a crazy two and half minutes like the single it probably could have become whilst the latter sees Andy shoot blasts of trumpet through it that bring the song to vibrant passionate life. The band have talked about this being a powerful album to play live and that comes across even if these circumstances. All twelve songs are performed tonight and make the tour setlist.
Attention is a huge song, one of those journey songs that James do so well that come out of their songwriting process of jamming and piecing together sections of them into a song. When they’re played live, they take the listener on a trip through their creative minds. Move Down South is another example of this as are Surfer’s Song and Catapult. The songs feel like they’re going to implode at any moment under the sheer weight of their own momentum, but that’s the thrill that both audience and band get with James, that pushing of the envelope to its very limit; hurtling towards the abyss, taking the blind curve with nowhere to swerve, but coming out the other side unscathed and invigorated by the experience.
As ever with James there are surprises in the setlist. A four minute instrumental opening ushers in One Of The Three, a song they haven’t played since 1999 and one of our personal favourites (we named our James website after it). It’s absolutely beautiful, subtle, understated and a million miles away from the greatest hits and the new album. However, that’s one of the reasons James are so special; behind the hits everyone knows there’s so much more, moments of experimentation, others of vulnerability and fragility that big bands don’t deal in.
Just Like Fred Astaire and She’s A Star are performed in stripped-back form, Jim’s absolutely beautiful acoustic bass (even as a non-musician I want one) taking centre stage as the songs are recreated and reinvigorated before our eyes. We’re Going To Miss You makes a welcome return too, and as it comes to its ending as five voices join in unison, the whole song is uplifted and taken to a new level. James have always used backing vocals to great effect, but on this album and the live dates around them they’ve even surpassed themselves in this regard. Whether it be at the moment where Nothing But Love becomes a wondrous celebration of love or in the intricacies and delicate tenderness of Feet Of Clay, the impact is tangible.
It’s Nothing But Love that they finish on, appropriately given it’s the song that seems to have sparked their current resurgence. They then take time out to chat to fans, take pictures before heading off to Bristol for a production rehearsal the following night at Colston Hall before the tour starts. The fans disperse back to all corners of the UK (a sign of the dedication of James fans that people have dropped everything at a few hours’ notice to make it here – the competition was touted as for Londoners but I think there’s two pairs of winners maximum within 50 miles of it).
It’s rare for a band to drop their guard and invite people into their inner sanctum, willing to be seen warts and all as part of their preparations. It was an experience that the fans there will never forget.
James played Move Down South, Catapult, To My Surprise, Girl At The End Of The World, Alvin, Waking, Feet Of Clay, One Of The Three, Just Like Fred Astaire, She’s A Star, Dear John, We’re Going To Miss You, Surfer’s Song, Bitch, Attention, Moving On and Nothing But Love.
Patchy, with peaks … Commendably still opting for spontaneity after all these years, the lads have whittled down some dance-tinged jams into workable songs and the result is an LP that, while unfocused, still has plenty of drive and energy. Sure – there’s some bad ideas here, but hell, at least they’re experimenting. And sounding like they’re enjoying it while they do.
60%
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This is an album that you feel Booth needed to make. It is not just a worthy successor to ‘Bone’, it actually surpasses it. As to whether ‘Love Life’ is an instruction or an insight, well, it’s actually a little of both and much else besides. But don’t take my word for it, do yourself a favour and have a listen. The consequences will be wonderful.
4.5
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Love Life has been a long time coming. Fresh from the celebratory gigs that accompanied the Bone album in 2004, Tim wanted to get back into the studio and work on a follow-up. Things didn’t come together as quickly as he hoped due to other commitments for him and his partner-in-crime Lee Muddy Baker. Then James came calling and the album got put on hold, to be worked on when the James rollercoaster paused for breath and now, as the rest of James promised Tim, there’s time and space for this rather beautiful record to make its entrance into the world.
Bone was born in a world post-James, where there was no other outlet for Tim’s passion for writing lyrics and making music and that, combined with Baker’s often unorthodox but effective working methods, meant that the album jumped from one theme and one mood to the next, usually within the same song, a patchwork, which given its birth in two Brighton bedrooms, gave it a charm and a life that made it very Tim Booth and very un-Jamesian.
Love Life comes out in a very different environment. James are back, playing arenas, releasing a successful album in Hey Ma and two well-received mini-albums The Night Before and The Morning After. Logically, there’s no need for this record, but when was logic a factor in the music business. This is an album that needed to be made, needed to be heard, free from the constraints of a band of seven, and it succeeds in being a Tim Booth album and not an album by that bloke out of James.
As Far As I Can See is one of the oldest songs of the album, having been played accompanied by a man on a saw back in 2006 at a rare solo outing in Brighton. It is the first song Tim has written on his own, put together on an omni-chord, before being passed to Lee to weave his magic. Its origins make it the simplest song on the album. It’s an unashamed but grounded love song to Tim’s wife Kate, starting from the first moment they met, when on his own admission he knew “I was in trouble”, through to the day to day domesticity that everyone, even internationally recognised musicians, go through at home.
Buried Alive deals with the mundanity of married life, from the viewpoint of a female friend. Familiar to many as the free download from signing up to the mailing list, the album version starts with a twist of some violin and the lyrics have been changed quite substantially from the demo, testimony to the very fluid working methods that this album has been produced with.
Harbour is the first of the three songs co-written with KK, and showcases a soulful side to Tim’s voice over a very simple loop that allows the lyrics to be emphasised without the need to turn up the volume to compete. It covers a love-hate relationship that survives on the adrenalin of the emotions and some of the conflicts within that relationship – “You are my safe harbour, and I am your storm”.
All About Time is the pop moment on the album, even though the sing-along chorus of “Johnny’s on the phone, Johnny’s online, Johnny’s in love, everything’s alive, Johnny thinks it’s all about faith but it’s all about time” doesn’t kick in until nearly two minutes in after Tim has reflected on the pace and soullessness of modern life – “zombies in the shopping mall, heart disconnected from our feet”.
The Point Of Darkness demonstrates exactly why this is a Tim Booth album and not a James album. Tim’s voice is almost acting as an instrument, dictating the pace and mood of the song in a way the rigidity of a seven-piece band doesn’t allow any singer. The song is trying to encourage someone who’s down out of their malaise, the clouds and darkness of the verse replaced by stars and light in the chorus, before the Silverlake Choir join Tim in taking the song to an unexpected crescendo. Recorded with days to go to the album deadline, the choir’s input is vital to the positive note on which the song finishes.
Consequences and Bless Them All are the two centrepieces of the album. The former is another KK co-write and has menacing but understated undertones in the music as Tim sings, again from a female perspective, about the balance between comfort in a relationship and the desire for something different that could tear everything apart (“you’re crossing the line between the thought and deed, there’s consequences”).
The latter is my favourite. Tim’s words feel like they’re a stream of consciousness, made up on the spot, but making complete sense together, an attack on evil forces at work in the world, mocking their ignorance, and how hope and love are the only antidotes. It ends with a crescendo of the choir with the chorus as Tim sings over the top about love, war, terror and natural disaster. It is the defining moment of Love Life.
Monsters is plain off the wall. The title is an intriguing one, as its nearest lineage is the James’ song Of Monsters And Heroes And Men, but this is the twisted and deranged version of the story, fraught with fear and paranoia from dark places – “With my blood he wrote AND, He wrote, EVE, He wrote, GOD. He wrote, LOVE, he wrote EVIL backwards”. Again, the music complements the lyrics wonderfully – there’s a chemistry between Lee and Tim that was evident on Bone, but it fits together so naturally on this album.
From the insanity of Monsters, Do Yourself A Favour is a gentle comedown. It’s a plea from an infatuated lover to their partner to let themselves go, take a risk and dive into their relationship.
Shatters muses on one of Tim’s favourite subject matters. The verses are almost read rather than sung, telling the story of finding oneself in a post-apocalyptic messed-up situation, before bursting into the chorus which turns pain, loss and disaster into experiences that bring people love, understanding and allows them to grow.
The final song, Gloria Descends, is a true life story, also reflected in one of Tim’s writings he premiered at last year’s Latitude festival, of the feelings he experienced last year when he nearly drowned on holiday.
Love Life ultimately succeeds where an album seven years in the making has no right to. Where you expect it to be disjointed because of the recording process, it makes perfect sense. It works together from start to finish and it is ultimately defined by the very special chemistry between Tim and Lee, as Lee lets Tim roam free over the music without losing his own personality in the mix, it’s a very neat trick. Whilst immediately accessible, it gives you something new on every listen.
It’s not a Tim Booth solo album, it’s very definitely not a James-lite album, it is however the best album you’re likely to hear this year.
In theory, this could have been complete arse. After three years’ silence, James singer Booth has hooked up with veteran composer Badalamenti for a semi-improvised ambient pop opus, with Brian Eno and Bernard Butler coming aboard halfway through. Imagine all those egos in one studio. Passengers 2, anyone?
And yet this is a glorious triumph of pop over pomp. James were headed towards these wide-open horizons anyway, but cutting loose seems to have freed Booth to truly soar. From the moment he swoops in over the anthemic ‘I Believe’ – wherein Badalamenti’s soft, ambient waves lap mellifluously against Butler’s leisurely twanging – Tim’s feet barely touch the ground. “Why be a song when you can be a symphony?” the singer beams, encapsulating the widescreen feel of this entire album.
Bathed in the same spectral half-light Badalamenti employed for his Twin Peaks and Julee Cruise projects, Booth croons euphoric lullabies like ‘Please Fall in Love’ with woozy grandeur. In the slinky funk-out ‘Dance of the Bad Angels’ he smooches like an indie George Michael, while the majestic final track, ‘Hands in the Rain’, twinkles into infinity, melting away to a warm afterglow.
But all is not lofty detachment here. Booth’s lyrics still babble about healing, inner children, astrology and other such New Age gubbins, though thankfully they’re undercut with a lusty exuberance and a self-mocking humour. Even sex, that force of nature which has little Timmy running scared on ‘Laid’, is heartily embraced in the frazzled mantra ‘Butterfly Dreams’, with Booth cheerfully crooning: “I’d love to sleep with the whole town”
This is a mighty album, with only one or two flawed experiments – and hopefully, Booth will maintain this standard on future James albums. In the meantime, just sit back and wallow in that rare phenomenon, a truly inspired collaboration.
Pop seems to be riven with collaboration fever at the moment, as everyone from Tricky to the Prodigy goes in search of ever more unlikely people to work with. As far as this goes, Tim Booth, whose day job is as singer with the English group James, has outdone them all. Angelo Badalamenti is best known for having composed the ethereal soundtracks to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, and his capture by Booth is quite a coup. On the whole, Booth and the Bad Angel sounds more like a James record than a Badalamenti one, veering as it does between up-tempo pop and often self-consciously dark slow-burners. For all that, it does contain traces of the composer’s textural genius – he thinks of his sound as “tragically beautiful” – in the ambient sweep of a synthesised string section here, the tentative lilt of a piano line there. Essentially though, this is a souped-up rock album, a James album with extra weird bits and a few good tunes, and it’s pleasant enough.
Les yeux dévorants, les textes sur le bout des lèvres, les gamins du premier rang fixaient Tim Booth d’une manière dont peu de chanteurs peuvent se vanter de l’être. C’était au Marquee, le single était à peine sorti que, déjà, ce parterre de gosses sidérés le connaissaient par cœur, dévoués au charisme trouble du chanteur.
« Sit Down », le single idéal, celui qui aurait dû monter dans le chart anglais comme le « Song For Whoever » de Beautiful South, s’il n’y avait pas une inexplicable poisse sur les merveilles de James.
Un single qui donne un efois de plus l’envie de se battre pour ce groupe si normal mais tellement différent.
Devouring eyes, the texts on the lip of the front row kids staring Tim Booth in a way that few singers can boast of being. It was at the Marquee , the single just came out that already this audience of stunned kids knew by heart , devoted to the disorder charisma of the singer .
” Sit Down”, the ideal single one who should ride in the chart English as the ” Song For Whoever ” Beautiful South , if there was not some inexplicable bad luck on the wonders of James .
A single that gives efois more desire to fight for what so normal but so different group.
Le voir pour le croire. L’allure de garçons mystiques enrôlés par la foi, qui s’apprêtent à revêtir leur robe de bure pour tourner en rond avec leur méditation dans les couloirs rassurés d’un monastère. L’allure seulement, car sous leur apparence désuète, les quatre de James sont peut-être les doux illuminés les plus en marge de toute la scène anglaise, insensibles aux courants, ignorants des poses et aveugles des modes, je doute même qu’ils connaissent l ‘existence du terme. Ce n’est pas que le temps se soit arrêté pour eux, il n’existe pas.
Il y a 50 ans, ils auraient porté les mêmes pompes, dans 50 ans ils se rachèteront les mêmes, si elles sont usées.
Rien d’étonnant : ils sont de Manchester, la ville où rien n’est surprenant. Bientôt, il n’y aura pas que chez eux qu’on admirera leur importance, leur pop intemporelle taillée au burin et leur sensibilité exacerbée, habitée par l’épilepsie et la loufoquerie : « Yaho », une ronde sautillante aux accents tyroliens pour attendre un deuxième album en début d’année, déjà un must.
Seeing is believing. The pace of mystical boys enrolled in faith, who are preparing to take their frock to go round in circles with their meditation in the corridors of a monastery reassured. The only speed, because under their antiquated appearance, the four of James may be mild in most illuminated margin of all the English stage, insensitive to currents poses ignorant and blind modes, I doubt they even aware of the existence of the word. This is not that time has stopped for them it does not exist.
It was 50 years ago they would have worn the same pumps, in 50 years they will buy the same, if worn.
No wonder they are in Manchester, the city where nothing is surprising. Soon, there will not be home that we admire their importance, timeless pop cut and chisel their heightened sensitivity, inhabited by epilepsy and craziness “Yaho” a chugging round the Tyrolean accents to wait a second album earlier this year, already a must.