Pleased to Meet You

by

James

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Years ago, after hearing - I mean really hearing - 'Laid', it became one of those timeless fantastic albums that you couldn't get tired of. The multi-layered slow builders - one instument carefully threaded on top of another - sometimes subtle, sometimes overt - but each adding to the final adrenalin rushing creshendo. Then suddenly it stops - all to start again in the next song. Just brilliant!

Then a couple of dodgy albums - 'Millionaires' being particularly weak. Ephemeral pulp - perhaps a wink at the mainstream in mind, but very misguided. Deep waters just aren't any good at pulp. Witness Bono or Ed Kowalcsyk's miserable forays into MTV-ville.

So now - 'Pleased to Meet You' landed on my table without much excitement. Halfway through 'Space' I was interested again - a couple of songs later I remembered why I was such a huge James fan. The Jameses have remembered what is uniquely theirs - the simple lyrical, incremental, subtle pop song. Its incredible how good the three chord wonder can sound in their hands.

Outstanding tracks are:

Space - long ethereal build up to a classic James song. Goes forward adding slowly to the wall of sound until the abrupt end five minutes later. An object lesson in not rushing the climax. This is what James are all about.

English Beefcake - Driven by a simple but beautiful bass line. Haunting guitar and keyboard melody. Great lyrics. A somewhat strange outro leaves you uncertain if you've moved onto the next song or not. Pity about the WhoaHo stuff at the end.... .

Junkie - Up front miked accoustic guitar (think Everlast - Whitey Sings the Blues). Unhurried shuffling drums. Sounds like Tim's singing with a peg on his nose but he's got issues worth crooning about.

Pleased to Meet You - Probably the darkest track on the album and the most memorable for it. Starting with a simple repetitive guitar refrain with a spacey keyboard background. Enter the brushed snare - eerie chorus line - pregnant scary bass bridge - wham! hit the distort button. Needs to be played loud and often.

Alaskan Pipeline - Beautiful filmic endpiece. 'You mother me, I son you'. Say no more.

Genius. Although Britney Spears probably couldn't give a hoot - there is still good music being made and selling too!

Nevertheless the stalwart, Brit-rock-pop legend known as James has certainly paid its dues. Pleased to Meet You is their 11th album in a career spanning 18 years, and fans will be assured that the seven band members (check out the album inlay for a composite portrait of them all) are still as creative as they ever were. If you can break through the veneer of experimental approaches in this 11-song set, then you're actually in for a pleasing, if eclectic, listen. The vocals of frontman and lyricist Tim Booth stand out in this effort starting out with the electronic ambience of Space. If you want to hear the typical James sound, complete with an-themic style chorus, then Falling Down and English Beefcake meet that criteria. For a downtempo minimalist sound, listen to Junkie and Pleased to Meet You while The Shining seems to sound more old-school melodic rock. Senorita, Give It Away, Fine and the first single release Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) pretty much concentrate on the angst-style melodic tunes that James is also famed for and contain the admittedly sometimes directionless ly-rics of Booth. Ambient rock sounds close the album just as they open it with Alaskan Pipeline albeit with an atmospheric sound. Pleased to Meet You may not sound as commercial as the likes of the last album Millionaires in 1999. But the return of top British producer Brian Eno to helm the production of the album proves that, at the least, James isn't afraid of taking risks with its music and testing its fans appreciation.