One Of The Three - The James Band Archive

Tag Archives: Even The Stars

Even The Stars – Review: James - Yummy

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Even The Stars | Graham McPhail | 11th April 2024

Booth’s continued evolution as a vocalist is a key to James’ fiercely relevant songs, and their many lyrical takeaways. He is an honest songwriter – perhaps too much at times – but manages to express what a lot of his listeners feel whether they too are 63 or 36. By addressing personal struggles head on he can help raise the listener high with each affirmative chorus. With these many successes Yummy adds itself to the James canon as an album both for fans and newcomers, a triumph over prejudice and anxiety. Everyone is welcome here.

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Even The Stars – Review: James – Pudding

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 4th April 2024

James have often talked up their songwriting process, the chaotic way in which jams are distilled over time into songs and Pudding gives us an insider view of that for the first time in three decades. Best listened to without any preconceptions and expectations, it’s like discovering a secret diary and scrap book of ideas. Without the death of proper release singles and accompanying b-sides many of these songs would have evolved into those and some may have displaced tracks from Yummy, but in 2024 Pudding tantalises and teases what these songs might have become whilst standing in their own right as a fascinating peep behind the curtains.

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EvenTheStars.co.uk – Review: James - Be Opened By The Wonderful

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EvenTheStars.co.uk | David Brown | 6th June 2023

Be Opened By The Wonderful is a perfect capture of the evolution of a project that might well have had a different tracklisting and arrangements had it been recorded after the recent tour which saw over a dozen more songs performed. It eschews the easy path of an orchestral Best Of, giving Joe the freedom to select the songs that he feels work best with the addition of orchestration and a choir and allowing his ear and love of the band to combine to create magic. James are at their best when they work with kindred spirits who understand the unique and complex DNA that make up a band that has shape-shifted through four decades refusing to stand still and compromise.

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EvenTheStars.co.uk – TRACK OF THE DAY: James - She's A Star (Orchestral)

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EvenTheStars.co.uk | David Brown | 23rd March 2023

James have announced details of their “Be Opened By The Wonderful – 40 Years Orchestrated” album and revealed the first track to be taken from it, a version of their 1997 Top 10 single She’s A Star. The album was recorded at Blueprint Studios in January 2023 with the ORCA22 Orchestra lead by Andra Vornicu and the Manchester Inspirational Voices choir, directed by Wayne Ellington. The album was orchestrated and conducted by Joe Duddell, who performed those duties with the band on their 2011 orchestral tour.

Tim Booth says of the album which celebrates forty years since the release of James’ first single Jimone on Factory Records – “Life begins at 40. For our midlife euphoria we recorded a double orchestral album of some of our deepest cuts. If you already have a golden ticket, you’ll be catching this on tour and at Latitude festival. Bring your wings and come ready to fly.”

Joe Duddell commented “Having attended the first 6 years of Latitude Festival, I’m excited to be involved in James’ special Main Stage Show this year in a UK Festival exclusive. James have always been a great band at Festivals, mixing their extensive well loved back catalogue with newer songs which immediately sounds as they too have been around forever.”

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Even The Stars – Review: James - The Campfire EP

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 19th November 2021

The Campfire EP is a success on many levels, it feeds the James’ fanbase’s love of them taking songs and twisting, turning and breathing new life into them by adjusting the perspective on them. For the All The Colours Of You tracks it’s a companion piece to the album that we’d love to see them explore for future records whilst the inclusion of Just Like Fred Astaire in this form is a welcome alternative take.

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Even The Stars – TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Miss America (Library Session)

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 5th November 2021

Tim explained some of the meaning behind the lyrics to the One Of The Three James page earlier this year – “The Miss America pageants used to be so white and 1950s throwback pre-feminism. Women have to look pretty and be giddy and stupid. They’d be asked crazy questions that make them look stupid too. And then Trump used to run Miss America beauty pageants. And then I’m leaving America – ‘miss America’ – there’s levels of puns I could work with, there’s rich ground.”

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Even The Stars – Review: James - All The Colours Of You

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 2nd June 2021

Their sixteenth studio album All The Colours Of You asks questions of the world around them, in their line of sight the mutation of the extraordinary times of their last album into social revolution, pandemic and personal loss, unafraid to challenge whilst pushing their playful side to the fore. Weird, but accessible, it’s possibly the most accurate snapshot of the real essence of James that they’ve ever released.

Producer Jacknife Lee’s mark is all over All The Colours Of You. They met, shared the demos, and set to work with the rest of the band contributing and directing from across the Atlantic. Elements of the record come from Jacknife taking those demos and smashing them to pieces and rebuilding, creating some very unusual and initially unnatural sounding structures.

Without the often stifling intensity of the studio environment the songs on All The Colours Of You are given the space to breathe, James relinquishing control to Jacknife and allowing his ideas to infiltrate and infuse the record in a way their search for absolute perfection has sometimes prevented their albums from reflecting the energy and risk-tasking adrenaline of their live shows. Circumstance has led to compromise in approach, but not to quality.

Like when Eno loosened those chains during the recording of Laid and Wah Wah, All The Colours Of You is perhaps the most Jamesian of James albums – an instinctive unplanned reaction to whatever chaos the world has thrown at the band. If you’re here to relive your youth, you’ve come to the wrong place. Perhaps All The Colours Of Us would have been a more appropriate title.

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Even The Stars – TRACK OF THE DAY : James - Beautiful Beaches

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 20th April 2021

Beautiful Beaches is the lead single and second track to be revealed from James’ forthcoming album All The Colours Of You, due for release on June 4th. Lyrically it references front man Tim Booth’s decision to move away from his home in Topanga Canyon outside Los Angeles to avoid the growing risk of losing everything to wild fires that have increasingly swept California in recent years.

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Even The Stars – TRACK OF THE DAY : James - All The Colours Of You

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Even The Stars | David Brown | 1st March 2021

The lyrics lay bare the intense claustrophobia of lockdown life – “Tell me how you’re staying sane, haven’t hugged a human since the end of May, quarantine with you, our world’s a private zoo” – before turning their sights on the outgoing US president and his followers – “President is your man, he’s the ku klux klan” – but with a positive slant on the outcome that human nature can still triumph – “The red, the white, black and blue, love all the colours, all the colours of you

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