Album Review: The Morning After by James

With the renewed interest in the ’80s, Manchester, Joy Division, etc., it’s peculiar we don’t hear more about James. Though active long before, it wasn’t until 1992’s Seven and 1993’s Laid, the latter produced by Brian Eno, that the world—namely America—took notice of James. However, it seemed that it was too little too late. They’d peaked, and they’d soon again disappear from the charts.

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Earlier this year I had the fortunate opportunity to review the James EP The Night Before. It was a pretty good little EP, but it did not feel like one of James’ greatest achievements. A sequel EP was promised, appropriately named The Morning After, and how the two would complement one another was anyone’s guess. In the back of my mind I guess I knew that a final decision shouldn’t be made until all of the songs were present and accounted for.

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An unexpectedly poignant turn from the indie veterans. David Sheppard 2010 Manchester’s James have always been an anomalous pop phenomenon. Initially too idiosyncratic and uncompromising to fit even on as libertarian an imprint as Factory Records, for whom they made their debut in 1983, and always too insular and awkward to give hometown contemporaries The Smiths sleepless nights, when they did eventually hit chart pay dirt, at the turn of the 90s, it was with their distinctive t-shirt range as much as a line in empathetic, route one anthems.

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The second mini-album this year from perennial Brit-rockers james, The Morning After is being unleashed on the American public as disc one of a two-disc set. The second disc being the companion mini-album released earlier this year called The Night Before. The result is a maxi-album’s worth of exciting art-rock titled The Morning After The Night Before.

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