(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The band James, from Manchester, were among the protagonists of the pop revival in Britain. Their 1985 singles, What's The World / Fire So Close / Folklore and Hymns For A Village / If Things Were Perfect, collected on the EP Village Fire (Factory), and the January 1986 single, Chain Mail, introduced them as slightly eccentric folk singers, bastard children of the folk ballad, but attempting to renew it with less predictable harmonies.
Stutter (Sire, 1986) arrived at a folk-rock sound that was at once semi-acoustic and unusually aggressive (So Many Ways the best, followed by Skullduggery and Just Hip).
That insight was completely abandoned with Strip-Mine (Sire, 1988), which instead aimed at an obvious replication of the Smiths’ sound (Yaho, Sit Down, and What For). Tim Booth donned the role of a more virile Morrissey and Larry Gott that of a more lyrical Marr, and the album sold in spades (in the UK).
Gold Mother (Fontana, 1990) presented a newly changed lineup. The band had expanded to seven members and the songs had grown long enough to brush against the pompous progressive rock of early Genesis, while retaining the folk-rock inflections of the Waterboys. The title track and Lose Control continued the series of easy ballads, but the group also opened up to danceable tunes (Come Home) and Brit-pop (How Was It For You). The album finally catapulted them into the sales charts.
Focusing on the danceable side, James reinvented themselves with Seven (Fontana, 1992), featuring Born Of Frustration (loosely inspired by Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds) and Sound.
Laid (Mercury, 1993) retreated to U2-style pop-rock (Sometimes) and generic atmospheric pop.
By now at their ebb, pressed by the Brit-pop wave, James delivered with Wah Wah (Mercury, 1994) their experimental work, a collection of twenty-three small improvisations featuring collaboration with Brian Eno, with the declared ambition of inventing environmental pop. Tomorrow is the catchiest song.
A typical “mattress” group of British pop, James have played everything without ever sounding like anything in particular.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Whiplash (Mercury, 1997) was a transitional work, quite typical in
trying just about every fad that loomed on the British music scene
(trip hop, drum'n'bass, dub, hip hop) and substituting orchestration for
emotion.
Millionaires (Mercury, 1999) was less confusing ma not less generically
mainstream.
Pleased To Meet You (Mercury, 2001) brought back Brian Eno and produced
a less indecent kind of dance-pop (Space, Falling Down).
Hey Ma (2008) offered more of their lush pop in an age in which lush
arrangements were no longer a novelty.
The mini-albums The Night Before (2010) and
The Morning After (2010) represent two sides of James: the pop bombastic
one and the intimate introspective one. They proved the dramatic prowess of
the band but added very little to its major canon of songs.
