James – Hey Ma!
Posted by AlMachine on Thursday, April 17, 2008


This is a welcome return from the Mancunian rockers; it’s actually seven years since the last album, in which time the band have split and reformed. To be honest this doesn’t really cover any new ground; Tim Booths trademark vocals are at the fore front of the songs and there sound hasn’t progressed or changed much over the years. The opener ‘Bubbles’ is grandiose and lavish with the added bonus of a horn section whilst Booth declares ‘I’m Alive.’

‘Hey Ma’ tries to be relevant; dealing with the Gulf War, and at times there seems to be harrowing wails during the song; it’s also the track that bears least resemblance to their older material. We then get back to the anthemic old-school feel with the jangly sing-a-long pop tracks of ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Oh My Heart’. The album does start to feel a little stale and familiar in the mid section; although that’s probably because the tracks here are more slow burning and will take a touch longer to drill into the subconscious, and it’s not really until the uplifting rip roaring finale of ‘I Wanna Go Home’ that you realize that James were actually a band that were missed. You can’t beat a crowd pleasing sing-a-long anthem and James certainly deliver those! It’s easy to be cynical and dismiss the reformation of any band; so lets not do that and just welcome and accept the eleven superior pop songs we’ve been given!

Greg Thomas

7/10


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