James - All The Colours Of You
Well it’s hardly the most cheery of lyrics to start an album with is it as Tim Booth bellows out during opening track Zero, “were all gonna die and that’s the truth”! But it is however a blistering start to proceedings as it turns out and the song progresses. It certainly is not as morbid as my initial impression, in fact it sets the tone perfectly for what is about to follow across its eleven tracks.
So, Manchester Indie veterans James are back with this their 16th studio album. Recent single All The Colours Of You, takes you on such a positive journey and sounds more like a band just starting out, such is its energy. It’s a great song, really upbeat and will undoubtedly work very well indeed when they are back playing live and it’s surrounded by a set packed full ofmany of their classic songs. Booth’s distinctive vocals are sounding as crisp and resplendent as ever, the passion and intensity in his voice remains fully intact and just bursts out of the speakers at you.
Beautiful Beaches is a wonderful track with a quite fabulous final 70 seconds. Wow! What a finale and weare still only on track 7, it’s just so uplifting.
Wherever It Takes Us maintains the momentum and is also bound to be a real firm favourite on the tour that starts in June and runs through until December.
Apart from a 6 year gap when the now 61 year old Booth left the band in 2001, they have continued their productive output of recordings during a quite remarkable career that is now spanning into its fifth decade and has brought us so many musical highlights.
XYST closes the album on a real high, with once again the inspired drumming of David Baynton – Power sounding quite awesome.
James have become something of a great British institution of a band, something that they should be celebrating and also feel incredibly proud of for they have earned it.
All The Colours Of You does not sound anything like a band that’s going through the motions this deep into their musical career, far from it in fact as it possesses all of the swagger and poise that has become associated with them some 39 years on from their formation in 1982 and 35 years on from the launch of the debut album Stutter. It’s a real triumph of an album and it’s so great from a personal perspective to be re-engaging with them once again while reviewing this album. It is sounding very inspiring, it is such a positive out pouring, which is just what we all need right now, right? I have exhausted the amount of times that I can log into the download that I was sent whilst writing this up, so I am now rather excitedly looking forward to its physical release next month. If you’re a fan go out and buy it, you will not be disappointed.
James have aged like a very fine vintage wine, they are in such a rich vein of form. It’s all killer and no filler for me.
The album is released on June 4th 2021.
9/10
