One Of The Three | Laid- The James Band Archive

Laid, a 1993 Studio Album by James.

Summary

Laid is James’s fifth album and a follow up to Seven. It features a more stripped-back sound and contains the US breakthrough single Laid. It was released 30 years ago in 1993, reissued with 2001 with additional tracks, and reissued again in 2015 with a second CD of b-sides, radio sessions, demos and jams.

Track List

Out To Get You / Sometimes (Lester Piggott) / Dream Thrum / One Of The Three / Say Something / Five-O / P.S. / Everybody Knows / Knuckle Too Far / Low Low Low / Laid / Lullaby / Skindiving

Also included in 2001 reissue:

Laid (live) / Sometimes (live) / Five-O (live) / Say Something (remix)

The 2015 Deluxe Edition reissue contained a second CD with the following:

America (Live In The US, September / 1992) / Building A Charge / Wah Wah Kits / The Lake / Seconds Away / Say Something (New Version) / Jam J / Assassin / Laid (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Five-O (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Sometimes (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Say Something (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Low Low Low (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Tomorrow (BBC Session, London / 1993) / Dream Thrum (Rehearsal) / You Were Born (Early Version Of “One Of The Three” / Outtake) / Bruce Jam 1 (Early Version Of “Knuckle Too Far”) / Carousel

Details

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Release Name:	Laid
Artist Name:	James
Release Date:	27 September 1993; December 2001 (reissue); March 2015 (reissue, boxset)
Format:	Studio Album
Catalogue:	LP – 514 943-1, CAS 514 943-4, CD 514 943-2; CD 548 787-2 (re-issue); Deluxe Edition 2xCD 0602547095947
Related Release(s):	Sometimes (Lester Piggott) (Single) Laid (Single) Jam J / Say Something (Single)

Following the success of Seven, Andy Diagram left the band to pursue other musical interests, taking the distinctive trumpet sound of the album with him. The acoustic tour of America with Neil Young had a profound influence on the band’s sound, playing acoustically focusing the band on producing a more simple “stripped and naked” sound.

The other distinctive factor in the sound of Laid was the appointment of Brian Eno as producer. Where Seven sounded like a band striving for perfection, “Brian encouraged us to improvise, encouraged us to use takes where we didn’t know what we were doing. He made us realise that this imperfection was a good thing.” (Jim, Q 1993).

Most of Laid was recorded over a six-week period in the spring of 1993 at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. Using two separate studios, one for the album “proper” and one for jams, the band recorded over fifty tracks, which also spurned the double album Wah Wah, which was released in 1994. The band did actually also try to record a live album at the same time playing a one-off gig at the Moles Club in Bath, but had underestimated their ability to play the new material live. Present at the show however was Peter Gabriel who approached the band to join the US WOMAD tour that summer.

Unlike previous albums, very little of Laid had been played live before it was recorded – Say Something had been in the set since April 1992 and Low Low Low had began life as a six-minute improvised trumpet epic. Read Tim’s track-by-track commentary on the album by clicking on the above link.

Laid received mixed but generally positive reviews in the music press. The stripped-down sound was seen as a welcome return to the band’s folky roots and a step back from the perceived stadium rock sound of Seven. The two singles released around the album, Sometimes and Laid, received surprisingly positive reviews, but only achieved moderate chart success.

The album peaked at Number 3 in the UK charts. Internationally, the band’s German record company initially refused to promote the album, claiming that without an obvious lead track and single it would not sell. The album went to Number 1 in Portugal. But the major breakthrough of Laid was in America where the album peaked at number 68, but sold over 600,000 copies as the band spent most of the first half of 1994 touring, starting with a number of support slots with Duran Duran followed by two headline tours, culminating in an invitation to play Woodstock 2 in August in front of 300,000 people.

Songs related to this release: