Be Opened By The Wonderful

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Tonight I raise my glass to an old friend. I'm sad and brimming with happy memories – Angelo Badalamenti died yesterday evening. I spent most of 1995 working with him making the 'Booth and the Bad Angel' album over an idyllic year in New York. I was obsessed with the Julee Cruise 'Floating Into The Night' CD and h... Read more Playground Festival, Glasgow – September 2021 Dipping their toes into the Israel/Palestine conflict, 'The Lake' has a dreamy eeriness. You feel like you are in a dream world but with a sinister undertone that keeps you uneasy. 'She's A Star' has a 50s/60s feel. Think late Buddy Holly mixed with The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper's pomp. In a song about a woman finding and releasing her innermost power, Booth shows us his vocal range. "She's been in disguise forever/She's tried to disguise her stellar views/Much brighter than all this static/Now she's coming through", Booth puts himself in the position of the female protagonist and explores her inner voice and strength. The strings bring a great dimension to the song, creating a feeling like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

This first disc closes with `Alaskan Pipeline` which could refer to trust issues in a relationship and is an intense listen. It has an almost operatic aria towards the end that is delightfully evoking. A thoughtful and weighty number to leave us on. The Lake` was the b side to `Laid` and is maybe a hidden gem being quite reflective with shimmering strings that pictorially portray an iridescent lake or stretch of water. A wonderfully thoughtful piece which could be a metaphor for something far deeper. The joyful`She’s A Star` a song about empowerment is given a fullorchestrated workout which allows a much more emotiveimpact. One of Britain’s most enduring success stories, JAMES have released sixteen studio albums, selling over 25 million copies, with their recent run of Top 5 albums proving to be a golden era for the band. All The Colours Of You, released in 2021, was their most critically acclaimed in many years, preceded by Living In Extraordinary Times in 2018, and Girl At The End Of The World, which narrowly missed out on the top spot to Adele in 2016.Medieval’ is as lyrically unforgiving as ever, but ‘Hymn From A Village’ is one of the real showstoppers on this side. It’s fun, punchy, upbeat and relentless. I cannot stop listening to this album. The themes covered – such as war, climate change and death are at total odds with the beauty of the songs and the music, with the emotions and feelings of these new versions intensified ten fold by the orchestra and choir. By working once again (and this time recording with) Joe Duddell, James have given themselves and their fans the opportunity to make new musical memories whilst revisiting old ones. There are so many layers and details to these songs and I am still discovering more after numerous listens. My advice is to shut yourself away, pop on some headphones and lose yourself in the pure musical magic – let yourself be Opened By The Wonderful. The brief `Why So Close` a protest song aboutworking withnuclear energy has a raw barber shop quartet texture, while the feudal `Medieval preserves its narrative folk-tinged tone. `

The upcoming tour – complete with orchestra and choir – looks likely to traverse brand new territory for the band. They’re off to the Acropolis for the first time, which certainly seems a long way from the grey skies of Manchester. Glennie’s enthusiasm and frankly glee at the prospect of the upcoming tour, radiates through the phoneline. He tells me that the fans of the band are the best in the world. Born and bred in Moss Side, Glennie has been part of James since its inception: the band’s even named after him! He tells me he started in the band that eventually morphed into James when he was just 15, never knowing that they’d hit it big. ‘It was really just a mad, stupid thing that I absolutely loved’, Glennie says, ‘And then it kind of just took on a life of it’s own.’ It’s when they came to the attention of John Peel that things really got going. Top Of The World` is a fascinating listen as this adaptation has the addition of woodwind and strings which offers a unique angle. The lyrical content is fairly ambiguous and to me has many inferences. We have a song about the death of a loved one with `Moving On`This orchestrated version ensures that the song is both touching and moving but also has a sense of acceptance. Classic single ‘Hymn from a Village’ doesn’t quite work with the additional musicians but both ‘Say Something’ and a stripped-down ‘Laid’ are particularly effective here – the latter providing the perfect bookend to what is a timeless collection of songs.Be Opened By The Wonderful is an anniversary album of sorts, but once the first note hits, you know you are listening to so much more. JAMES are: Tim Booth, Jim Glennie, Saul Davies, Adrian Oxaal, David Baynton-Power, Mark Hunter, Andy Diagram, Chloe Alper and Deborah Knox-Hewson. Be Opened By The Wonderful was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, orchestrated and conducted by Joe Duddell with the ORCA22 Orchestra lead by Andra Vornicu featuring the Manchester Inspirational Voices choir, directed by Wayne Ellington. One of Britain’s most enduring success stories, James has released 16 studio albums, selling over 25 million copies with a recent run of Top 5 albums proving to be a golden era for the band. All The Colours Of You released in 2021 was James’ most critically acclaimed in years, preceded by Living in Extraordinary Times and Girl at the End of the World which narrowly missed out on the top spot in 2016 to Adele. Flash forward to 2023, and James have more than 15 albums/compilations and thousands of gig and festivals performances under their belts, as well as a permanent place in Manchester’s music history. Far from resting on their laurels, James seem busy as ever: they’ve got an upcoming UK tour, a new orchestral album coming out, and another album in the pipeline. I ‘Sat Down’ with Jim Glennie, bassist for James, to discuss this exciting new chapter in the band’s story. ‘James’, Photo: Lewis Knaggs