The Girl At The End Of The World is James’ 14th studio album. At this stage in their career you could quite easily expect them to adopt an 'if it ain’t broke don’t fix it' attitude. But then James have never been that sort of band. Even at their arena touring peak, they were a contrary bunch, following up the anthemic Seven with a largely acoustic based album (Laid) and then a collection of weird radio unfriendly experimentation (Wah Wah). With Girl At The End Of The World, hooky, wide-eyed songs are mainly back at the forefront – typified by the glorious Nothing But Love, a tune that if you’re based in the UK you might have heard being sung by children as part of an advert for The National Lottery or on an advert for Amazon. However, James don’t play safe. There’s still a big sense of a band willing to experiment, try different sounds and styles, and managing to make something of merit. Somewhere along the course of this record you’ll find a slow weary synth pop tune that sounds like a distant cousin to Kylie, The Pet Shop Boys or Blancmange, a lip-curling, dirty, propulsive nod to the soundtrack to Peter Gunn, slide guitar riffs and a song that contains the chorus “Were you just born an asshole?” And that's just for starters. Girl At The Of The World probably didn’t bring in many new fans to the fold, but it comes recommended by this old fan for featuring a number of great tunes and being an example of how it’s possible, even when you’ve been doing it for years, to still be full of ideas and be prepared to experiment. New bands take note. James - Nothing But Love (Video)
Yesterday we posted a well-received article giving some reasons why many on line music writers don’t write about the lyrics (good or bad) in pop songs. It therefore seems an appropriate time to post about long serving UK band James, who released a new LP (La Petite Mort) this year. From that record on Soundcloud comes Curse Curse. Here Tim Booth returns (partly) to his saucy and funny days of Laid where he sang of the bed being on fire “with passionate love, the neighbours complain about the noises above, but she only comes when she's on top.” On Curse Curse Tim correlates football and making love in the opening lines, which find him being ashamed for getting turned on by the sound of someone in the next door hotel room having sex whilst he watches Lionel Messi score a goal. “A hundred thousand came,” he sings. Curse Curse is a return to the bands heady chart topping days around the period between the Gold Mother and Seven albums, taking influence from rave-pop. It’s also our favourite song of theirs for years and so whilst Breaking More Waves doesn’t delve too deeply into artists that may now be considered past-masters, we’re enjoying Curse Curse so much, and after all it is their new single / new music which is our main reason for existence, so we wanted to bring it to your attention. Altogether now: “Pour me more tequila…..” James - Curse Curse
Music That Made Me is a weekly personal and autobiographical dip into the ocean of memories that over the course of this year will give context to Breaking More Waves.
There are some people that drift into my life and I can never remember where I first met them. Then occasionally there are people who boldly rush in, pushing everything out of the way with such an immediate impression that they are impossible to forget.
It was fireworks night – the air was full of sulphur and excitement and I was living on a houseboat on the River Thames. We were permanently moored in Windsor with a direct view of the castle. I often used to imagine her majesty woke up, looked out of her window with wakeful royal eyes and the boat was the first thing she saw.
This particular girl, who for some time I became almost strangely obsessed with was like no one I had met before. She had many of the typical traits that I found attractive in women – arty, pale skin, red curly hair, Celtic accent, suitably cool individual fashion sense (she sat next to Stella McCartney in needlecraft at Central St Martins College of Art and Design) - but what attracted me most was the conflict between her energy and the wall the she occasionally put between us. She had a contagious and explosive zest that made the world seem an exciting place full of endless possibilities, yet sometimes she seemed afraid of losing her own securities.
We became friends very quickly, nothing more – our relationship was one which for the most part sat on the side of nothing more than a vague tease - and we thrived in each other’s company. Everything we did seemed full of excitement – expensive Champagne at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden served by distinguished Italian waiters, weird backstreet temporary fetish fashion stores, vodka cocktails in hidden London basements, art-house films at the National Film Theatre, her exotic friends who made poverty seem exquisitely glamorous. “Let me give you a butterfly kiss,” she whispered one day to me, pressing her lips as close as possible to my face without ever touching. She was impulsive, eccentric, and maybe a little unstable at times; I thrived on it all.
She wasn’t a huge fan of music, although she loved experiencing the new – she was a big fan of travel and she often sent me letters from far corners of the world. When I took her to see The Verve at Brixton Academy she almost got into a fight with another girl – she had some temper on her. But it was another band and another song that I remember her by. The group was James.
I loved and still love a lot of their material – from their early 80’s indie-folk roots to their arena topping rock-pop of the early 90’s. She’s A Star isn’t by any means my favourite James song – that would be a close call between Ring The Bells, Sometimes, Out To Get You, Johnny Yen and of course their anthem Sit Down, but it reminds me of her. There’s some snippets of lyrics that seem just right “much brighter than all this static,” and “so frightened that he won’t love her, she builds up a wall,” seemed to almost be written with her in mind. I never told her that when I heard the song it made me think of her – at the time I wasn't an outward fan of clichéd sentimentality and linking it to music, but now some fourteen years on when I hear She’s A Star it makes me smile and remember.
Saturday at Latitude 2010 brought a touch of early morning rain that disappeared shortly before the live music started. From thereon it was another day of sunshine rays and sunblock.
Pat Grossi aka Active Child may produce solemn frozen electronic hymns, but his engaging smile and greeting of “morning campers,” to those who had turned out early for his set at the leafy Sunrise Arena belied the idea that he was some sort of gloomy chill wave monster. Plucking at his harp whilst his laptop added beats and washes of weighty eighties influenced synth sounds, his eerie falsetto weaved its way through the trees during I’m In Your Church At Night, threatening to call out the forest ghosts. It was a devine sound and Grossi knew it - kissing his harp at the end in thanks. The music of Active Child may be coldly computerized, but his words are often warm, human and emotional, from “I’m so far away from the warmth of your body,” to “take shelter in my arms.” Finishing with When Your Love Is Safe, his icy sound managed to warm the soul.
Over at the Lake Stage 18 year old Rachel Furner was the latest young pop hopeful bashing out songs such as Human Nature - a ditty about how you can’t help who you fall in love with - on her keyboard. She was clearly enjoying herself, full of youthful positivity and big smiles. It’s hard not to like her enthusiasm, but easy to dislike her songs a blend of highly commercial X Factor meets Scouting For Girls blandness. She can sing, she’s sassy but she offered no delight other than mainstream hollowness.
Not everything mainstream need be hollow, as the next act - Clare Maguire (pictured above) - proved. One of our Ones To Watch 2010 Maguire positively boomed out her songs to the “crazy Latitude people,” as she described them, with a voice awash with soul and richness. Ain’t Nobody, Shield and the Sword and Last Dance were all incredibly potent, fully justifying the argument that real talent still counts in the music industry - Maguire having been signed to Polydor Records. She also helped continue the Fleetwood Mac revival following the emergence of Lissie and Florence and the Machine’s recent Glastonbury performance of The Chain, by delivering an immense version of Big Love. Forget X-Factor. Forget Britain’s Got Talent. The real deal is Clare Maguire.
“I believe in guitars, bass, drums, three minute songs, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and rock ’n’ roll,” Frank Turner passionately announced from the Obelisk Stage before getting the crowd to yell back “I believe,” to his own musical religious mantra. Turner may not be a patch on Presley or Springsteen - but his set is workmanlike, honest and full of conviction. His acoustic strum-thrashes delight those at the front who sing along to every word, and its hard not to be moved by the touching Long Live The Queen- a positive song about a friend of his that died.
The reformed James get things exactly right for their late afternoon slot. Starting with the song Bubbles the best track from their inconsistent album Hey Ma, their now bald and goateed singer Tim Booth sang gloriously “I’m alive,” and it felt like a new birth for the band. “We were going to do lots of new ones, but......,” he joked before leading his group through a greatest hits set that included Ring The Bells, Sound, Sometimes, Laid and inevitably Sit Down, which he performed off the stage (see video clip below). It was perfect for the time of day and became a joyous crowd pleasing celebration of the bands career. Booth danced like a madman, contorting his arms and body in a trance like state and during Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) pulled a John Travolta Saturday Night Fever pose as he sang a line about the actor. Good to have them to have them back as Bruce Forsyth might say.
Back at the Lake Stage Nedry brought something of a very different nature, their heavy trembling basslines and edgy beats getting heads bobbing. Lead singer Ayu was resplendent dancing childlike in in a pink shiny dress as she wailed and chanted playfully, her two laptop whiz-kids Chris and Matt rowing in rafts of post-dubstep illustriousness. Ending with a new slightly more techno-laced track than what they have produced before they no doubt won a few new fans.
Riot-electro-art-punks Teeth continue to divide opinion. With simply a single laptop, live drums and the robot-effect vocals of Veronica So their raw intense bleepy shouty d.i.y sound left some audience members shaking their heads, whilst others, at the encouragement of the band formed a circle pit - the kind of thing you would expect at a metal gig rather than a rather more sedate festival - although this circle pit did feature children and placid forty year old men - this was Latitude after all.
Back to the Obelisk stage, the festival was about to witness its most controversial performance. Alice Glass from Crystal Castles looked like a crazed vampire in a Smiths tour t-shirt. She vacantly stared at the audience, swigged from a bottle of Jim Beam and shrieked over the digital hardcore and dirty rave blasts that emanated from Ethan Kath’s box of electronic tricks, backed up by a live drummer. News of the rape that occurred on Thursday night had slowly spread around the site and Alice angrily urged that all rapists should be castrated before launching herself into the full-on mosh pit. After crowd surfing for some time she pulled back and shouted “You touch my tits, I kick you in the f*cking head,” before lashing a series of blows down on one audience member. From thereon Glass barely sang at all, instead she prowled the stage, knocked over a drum riser and exited to a number of boos from the back of the crowd. Provocative and with a performance more akin to Reading Festival than Latitude, if nothing else Crystal Castles know how to grab headlines.
Musically opposite to Crystal Castles, Obelisk stage headliners Belle and Sebastian brought a lot of love and fun to Latitude 2010. Playing their first show in four years the Scottish twee indie-pop heroes charmed with humour and great songs. Stuart Murdoch joked that he was going to take his top off, but “That would be like walking in on your dad in the shower.” Later he explained that the band had been having bad dreams about playing live again - that their guitars turned to jellyfish or his tongue into a cactus. Another dream involved Latitude itself and Murdoch turning to guitarist Stevie Jackson and saying “play Jumping Jack Flash.” They then turned the dream into a warped reality and rock out to The Rolling Stones number - a moment of surreal crowd pleasing. Wheeling out many of the classics - Funny Little Frog, Judy And The Dream Of Horses, Fox In The Snow, Legal Man, I’m A Cuckoo they then got a crowd of young fans from the front row up on stage to dance during The Boy With The Arab Strab. Whoever said that only big rock bands, anthems and huge light shows could work as a headline set at a festival begone. A victory for the small people.
From the sublime to the ridiculous the last musical entertainment of the night finished with Gaggle on the Lake Stage. Bearing weird colourful headpieces, face paint and banners that declare “This Is Merely A Distraction From The Inevitable” the 17 piece all female alt. choir spat out “How can tell if my mans a liar,” with venom, bemusing the crowd that had gathered to see them. Rather like other multi-member costumed bands such as The Polyphonic Spree, Gaggle are an interesting diversion because of their uniqueness, but this uniqueness is not particularly addictive. A ‘must see’ once - but that is enough. For now they remain a one trick pony.
With that Saturdays musical entertainment at Latitude 2010 was over. Until the next day where amongst others Mumford and Sons, The Antlers and Grizzly Bear awaited.
Formed in the early 80’s, Manchester band James achieved huge commercial success in the 90’s with songs such as Sit Down, Sound, Born of Frustration and She’s A Star. And although they split in 2001, the group reformed in 2007 to tour and release a new album Hey Ma. The Night Before is the first of two mini-albums the band plan to release in 2010, the second being titled The Morning After, currently expected in July. To record The Night Before the band worked virtually, recording and uploading their music to a ftp site, the whole thing being pulled together by producer Lee ’Muddy’ Baker. Once James have toured this month they intend to spend five days “to capture something spontaneous,” and play and record in a room together once more to create The Morning After.
With The Night Before the group rediscover the sound that put them at the peak of the sales charts in the 90’s. Songs such as Crazy with its chorus of “I’m not cra-a-azy, I’m just laughing at myself,” are top-notch trademark James tracks. Their music may not be particularly relevant now and is unlikely to see the band storming a new popularity, but these melodic songs, that sweep, soar and ebb in all the right places will please long-term fans immensely. No new tricks are present, but the argument is that if the magic was good, the wand is worth a further wave. At this stage in the game, most fans will be quite happy without any massive artistic progression as long as the songs are of quality.
A number of these tracks could quite easily find themselves cohesively sitting on the James album Seven, one of their biggest sellers. For example, Ten Below finds singer Tim Booth reminiscing on his younger years “I’m at the bottom of my bed, headphones on my head, John Peel show, feels ten below,” over a brooding, pummelling indie rock sound that seems designed for larger venues. Porcupine is also vintage James. Starting with a clicking electronic pulse, countryesque guitar underpins Booth's warm and soft voice before the song bursts out of its sleepiness with an arms aloft chorus halfway through. The only track that grates a little is Dr Hellier. Inspired by Booth’s hospitalisation for liver disease it takes a heavy handed approach lyrically comparing his body to Afghanistan and that his doctor said that “We can’t let the Taliban take over and breed.” This lyrical coarseness is a minor criticism though.
For those who loved James in the 90’s, there will be much on this record that will remind of times past and give a cheery rose tinted moment in the present. The only disappointment with The Night Before is that as a mini-album, it doesn’t last long enough.
