Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Musician NOVEMBER 1993 - by Bill Flanagan

OUT OF THE BLUE

JAMES: LAID

James, a British band with several smart but unspectacular records to their credit, have unexpectedly come up with what must be one of the best albums of the year. In fact, it sounds like music we'll still be listening to in ten or twenty years. Laid is gentle without being wimpy, smart without being snotty and moody without being morbid. I've been playing it almost nonstop for the last three months and people keep asking me, "What is that and where can I get one?"

James' sudden leap into the front ranks may owe something to lessons learned on a stripped-down, semi-acoustic tour they did early this year, and it owes a lot to Brian Eno's "Let's-get-rid-of-all-the-distractions-and-figure-out-what-you-really-have-to-say" production. Aurally, Laid lives in the dreamy terrain Eno navigated on The Unforgettable Fire. But for all the beauty of that sparse environment, Laid connects so strongly because its beautiful melodies are sung honestly, without a trace of distance. You listen to this album and feel like someone is talking right to you, telling you stories you've never heard before.

The album's title may have been picked as a joke ("Did you get Laid yet?"), but it captures the general mood of post-coital dreaminess. Although the lyrics aren't the main point, they address the sort of issues, general and personal, that drift to the front of our minds as we're falling off to sleep. Out To Get You and the Leonard Cohen-like Lullaby survey damaged relationships with the sorrow that hangs on long after anger has faded. One Of The Three finds an agnostic telling Christ, No hard feelings. Low Low Low puts into perspective man's position as he heads toward extinction ("I'm a member of an ape-like race at the asshole end of the twentieth century") and implies that, while regrettable, the importance of the end of humanity should not be blown out of proportion.

But, honestly, the subjects of these songs are the last thing you'll dwell on as you let this album sink into your subconscious. Who knows what Van Morrison was singing about on Veedon Fleece? Who cares? In whittling their music down to a Shaker-like simplicity, James have built something that will last for a long, long time.