James

James emerged from Manchester during the mid-1980s as a durable and wide-ranging British rock outfit whose early work fused driving, melodic pop with layered guitar textures and the distinctive singing of frontman Tim Booth. Those qualities initially drew parallels to the Smiths, who publicly championed the newcomers and invited them to share bills. At the start of the following decade the group moved beyond such associations by incorporating acid-house rhythms, launching a series of bold stylistic shifts that continued across subsequent years. Their baggy-pop single “Sit Down” became the breakthrough, peaking at number two on the British chart in 1991 and gaining traction on American alternative radio. The 1992 album Seven built on that momentum, yet it was 1993’s Laid, especially its exuberant and risqué title track, that defined the band’s fully developed sound. Teaming with Brian Eno, they pursued sonic experiments that proved both artistically rewarding and commercially successful. For the rest of the decade they remained reliable chart presences, reaching a creative peak with Pleased to Meet You before pausing activities in 2001. They reconvened in 2007, issued Hey Ma the next year, and thereafter alternated live work with ambitious studio projects that included the paired 2010 releases The Night Before and The Morning After, the 2021 pandemic chronicle All the Colours of You, and the 2023 orchestral double album Be Opened by the Wonderful, which reimagined earlier material with a full orchestra and choir. Their eighteenth studio album, Yummy, arrived a year afterward.

The band first assembled in Manchester in 1982 when guitarists Paul Gilbertson, bassist Jim Glennie, and drummer Gavan Whelan encountered vocalist Tim Booth at Manchester University and invited him to complete their new project. Within a year James were fixtures on the local club scene; by 1983 they had joined the Factory roster and released their debut EP, Jimone. Their second EP, James II, followed in 1985 and earned an endorsement from the Smiths’ Morrissey, who asked the group to support his band on tour. That summer Larry Gott replaced Gilbertson, and the musicians moved to Sire Records. Producer Lenny Kaye helmed sessions for the debut album Stutter, which appeared in early 1986 to favorable notices.

Extensive touring over the next two years strengthened their audience. The folky second album Strip-Mine surfaced in 1988 but failed to convert live popularity into sales, prompting a departure from Sire and a move to the independent Rough Trade. There they issued the modestly charting single “Sit Down” alongside the live set One Man Clapping, which topped the indie listings. In 1990 Whelan gave way to drummer David Baynton-Power while the lineup expanded to a septet with keyboardist Mark Hunter, violinist Saul Davies, and trumpeter Andy Diagram. Now on Fontana, they delivered Gold Mother that autumn. After several smaller hits, a re-recorded, baggy-beat version of “Sit Down” propelled the album to major success, reaching number two in Britain in spring 1991 and becoming a modern-rock staple in the United States. Although the track lifted their profile, it also narrowed perceptions of the group, leading them to emphasize fresh material in concert and to pursue a more arena-oriented direction on 1992’s Seven.

For the next record James reduced the lineup by removing Diagram and enlisted Brian Eno as producer. The resulting Laid offered a quieter, more expansive approach and earned some of the strongest reviews of their career. While it attracted little attention at home, the album broke through on American alternative radio thanks to the title track’s crossover appeal. During those sessions the band also tracked an album’s worth of experimental material with Eno that appeared in late 1994 as Wah Wah. Mixed reactions greeted the release, after which the musicians took a lengthy break partly occasioned by Gott’s exit. In 1996 Booth collaborated with composer Angelo Badalamenti—known for Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet—on the album Booth and the Bad Angel.

Guitarist Adrian Oxaal joined for the more direct 1997 album Whiplash. Two years later Millionaires arrived with yet another guitarist, Michael Kulas. Their 2001 follow-up Pleased to Meet You received widespread critical praise though chart returns were modest compared with prior releases. Months later Booth announced his departure from the band he had helped form nearly two decades earlier, and James disbanded after a final British winter tour in December 2001. The split endured six years until a 2007 reunion that included a sold-out tour supporting the double-disc singles compilation Fresh as a Daisy. New studio work followed with 2008’s Hey Ma, the group’s tenth album.

In 2010 James returned with the paired “mini-albums” The Night Before and The Morning After. Late the following year they undertook a brief British tour backed by the Orchestra of the Swan and the Manchester Consort Choir. The expansive box set The Gathering Sound appeared in 2012, gathering previously unreleased recordings and long-unavailable concert footage. Produced by Max Dingel, La Petite Mort was released in June 2014 and signaled a shift from Mercury to Cooking Vinyl. Dingel also produced the 2016 album Girl at the End of the World, which was written in Scotland and recorded in London with a personal yet ultimately hopeful outlook. Two years later the band worked with producers Charlie Andrew and Beni Giles on Living in Extraordinary Times.

During the 2020 pandemic Booth collaborated with his Topanga Canyon neighbor Jacknife Lee to lay down basic tracks that the rest of the group finished in isolation. The resulting All the Colours of You appeared in June 2021. To mark their fortieth anniversary the musicians revisited their catalog with the 22-piece ORCA22 Orchestra and the eight-piece Manchester Inspirational Voices choir. The double album Be Opened by the Wonderful was released in June 2023. By then the lineup had expanded again to include singers and multi-instrumentalists Deborah Knox-Hewson and Chloe Alper, both of whom contributed to James’ eighteenth studio album, Yummy, issued in April 2024.