Though James were active in the 80’s, they hit the jackpot in the 90’s when they released their album ‘Gold Mother’ during the ‘Madchester’ movement, in which they gained recognition as a Manchester-based indie band, resulting in tracks such as ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Laid’ becoming indie anthems everywhere. The news of their new album ‘La Petite Mort’ was accompanied by much excitement due to recent recording hiatuses from the band. Tim Booth left the band in 2001, returning in 2008 with the critically acclaimed ‘Hey Ma’ album, which charted in the UK albums chart for 5 weeks. In 2010 the band released 2 mini albums, ‘The Morning After’ and ‘The Night Before’. Though the band have toured since they reunited, and during the release of these albums, as well as the albums good reviews, they were underrated, and it’s the 90’s that James are most remembered for. ‘La Petite Mort’ is easily one of the best albums of 2014 so far. Booth’s voice is like a ghost of 90’s past, and the album feels like a major come back.
‘Walk Like You’ is the perfect opening track, with both the lyrics and melody screaming “we’re back”. Lyrics such as “let’s inspire, let’s inflame, let’s create from our pain” suggest a reference to mortality, though personally I see it as a reference to the band’s return, and desire to stay – let’s hope so!
‘Curse Curse’ is easily my favourite track on the album; the first time I heard it the mass amounts of energy within the track made me want to go for a run (though so far this hasn’t happened). The track has a real 90’s edge to it and the catchiest chorus I’ve heard this year, it’s safe to that I’ve had the line “pour me more tequila” running through my head since my first listen of the track.
‘Moving On’ was the bands first single from the album, and an obvious choice due to its catchiness. Though it appears to describe loss, it’s incredibly upbeat and with a good crowd, will be a great track to hear live – it’s easy to imagine Booth’s legendary moves accompanying it. It features the line ‘leave a little light on’ which a lot of people will have seen plastered over Twitter recently, as the band appeared to use it as a hash tag to promote the new album, with guitarist Larry Gott most recently having it written across his guitar on their ‘One Show’ performance.
The bands second and newest single is ‘Frozen Britain’; the track features an electric guitar riff from Gott, accompanied by cheeky lyrics, which Booth when recently interviewed by XFM, stated to tell the story of “a man being woken up from the dead by the love of a woman. He’s stuck in a rut and his life has died and they fall in love, it’s like a kiss of life.”
‘Gone Baby Gone’ has an electric feel to it, and is quite a humorous song lyrically. For example, Booth switches from chanting ‘love love love love love’ to ‘blah blah blah blah blah’. The humour is quite a nice surprise as the song appears to be about the end of a relationship, and songs of such a nature are usually a tad more desolate!
The album also features a few slower songs, which are slightly more stripped back as oppose to the majority of the tracks on the album, including ‘All In My Mind’, ‘Quicken The Dead’, in which Booth’s voice is accompanied by a beautiful piano medley, and ‘Bitter Virtue’. As ‘Bitter Virtue’ begins, it has the slight tinge of a song that’d open a James Bond film. It’s a beautiful, meaningful song, with lyrics that almost sound like Booth’s delivering direct life advice to the fans; “accept everything” and “regret nothing” being 2 examples.
‘All I’m Saying’ is the perfect end to a perfect album. With lyrics describing 2 people not having the chance to say goodbye, the song appears to have personal and heartbreaking underpinnings. Though the last line “I’m missing you, and all the worlds you opened up to view, I love you, see you next time” could well refer to the same loss, it could also refer to new things for the band, which is a much more positive outlook, and realistic as James are back, and they’re giving it everything!
Booth recently said that the band feel that they’ve made one of their strongest albums, which is quite a statement to make when it’s your 13th album, but I definitely agree with them. One listen to the sneak preview the band treated fans to 5 days before the official album release, and I was in love with an album I didn’t and couldn’t have (yet, anyway!) The direction the band have taken with the album is interesting, as information regarding the title referring to the recent loss of Booth’s Mother and best friend is divulged in the sleeve notes. With such tragedy underpinning the album title, you’d expect the album to have a sadness running through it, with a hint of melancholy and darkness, but the album is incredibly upbeat, and definitely one everyone should have!
‘La Petite Mort’ is released on June 2nd 2014. Order here.
Track listing:
Walk Like You / Curse Curse / Moving On / Gone Baby Gone / Frozen Britain / Interrogation / Bitter Virtue / All In My Mind / Quicken the Dead / All I’m Saying
Listen to ‘Moving On’ below:
By Laura Dean – @modestlaura
