Hey Ma - James Album Review

James

Album Review

James never really fitted into any scene. They released the huge, so called ‘stadium rock’ album ‘Seven’ when we were all busy gazing at our shoes, the acoustic ‘Laid’ when Suede were the only show in town and the experimental Whiplash when the huge sonic landscapes of The Verve’s ‘Urban Hymns’ and Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ were the big sellers. The only time they got close to being part of a scene was with the release of ‘Gold Mother’ during the ‘Madchester’ scene. Even then, James were nowhere near as baggy as their peers and they did all they could to eschew the scene. This all made James something of an enigma. Unable to pigeon-hole them, the press instead lambasted or at best ignored them and while the live following never dwindled, the record sales had become paltry in the UK by the time of the inevitable demise in 2001.

They returned last year in the ‘year of the reunion’ to play a sell-out arena tour, with the promise that the return would be more about a new chapter in the James history than a cash-in. And so a year on, we have the first new material from the band since 2001. ‘Upside’ was road tested on last year’s tour and quickly established itself as a live favourite. A handful more songs emerged throughout the festival season, two of which have since been dropped, hopefully to return at some point. Then in September, James played two intimate shows in East London, at which they aired sixteen new songs before decamping to France to record and whittle the songs down to the eleven that appear on ‘Hey Ma.’

‘Bubbles’ opens with a gorgeous piano intro but it’s from the second the guitar enters that you know that this is the real James, complete with Manchester guitar hero Larry Gott. When the trumpet kicks-in, it becomes blissfully clear that the line-up is back to the seven musicians who wrote ‘Gold Mother’ and ‘Seven’. Tim Booth appears to be singing about his relationship with his son and this is one of many autobiographical moments on ‘Hey Ma’. ‘Waterfall’ is a song about cleansing and feeling inner-peace and it will be an injustice if it is not a single. The clean production allows the musicianship to shine through and this is a feature throughout the album. A couple of the tracks sound as if they could have been lifted straight from ‘Laid’. Booth sings a lament about man’s inability to remain faithful on ‘Semaphore’, which is complemented by Gott’s trademark slide guitar. ‘Of Monsters and Heroes and Men’ contains an almost stream of consciousness lyric that is apparently based on a poem. It builds to a huge crescendo and will surely become a live favourite. In fact, you can imagine all of these songs transferring easily to the live arena.

There are some serious global issues covered on ‘Hey Ma’. The title track is a song about the harsh consequences of the war on terror and the failure to learn from the past. ‘72’ is the counter-balance and seems to challenge the Islamic belief that in order to get to heaven you must kill non-believers, in the name of Allah. Heavy stuff indeed. James can still write anthems though and both ‘Oh My Heart’ and the pulsating album closer, ‘I Wanna Go Home’ stand up against anything in their history. Andy Diagram’s trumpet is all over the album with the result being that Hey Ma is a truly enormous record. ‘Boom Boom’ is probably the weakest musically on the album but this appears to have been an intentional move, as it ensures that the lyric is to the fore. Many of Booth’s early lyrics were concerned with the apprehension of signing to a record company and a wariness of the music industry in general. This song is the mature take on the same subject and when Booth sings “The phone is ringing now” it is the most wonderful and subtle v-sign to the doubters.

The album is not completely flawless. ‘Whiteboy’ is slightly throwaway and spoils the flow of the album a little, although it has gained James some welcome radio play. The other disappointment is the aforementioned ‘Upside’, which was the standout moment of the festival sets last summer. It has long been a problem for James that they have failed to capture the live energy of their songs when they enter a recording studio. The sentiment of the song remains but the chorus has Booth half-shouting and if there is a complaint about the production of Hey Ma, it is that Booth’s vocal very occasionally borders on the bombastic. However, this is a minor quibble and on the majority of the album, his vocal is at its heavenly best.

James have written a truly James-like album that can stand alongside their previous career high points with ease. ‘Hey Ma’ will not provide any help to those looking to pigeon-hole the band and if the response from the press is to ignore it then that will be scandalous. James are back and this time the world really ought to listen.

Mike Nuttall