Be Opened By The Wonderful

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James’ eighth studio album Millionaires has always been underrated and ‘We’re Going to Miss You’ marks one of three contributions across this collection that serve as a reminder of the overall quality of that record. When everyone else was arguing about Blur and Oasis, the real outsiders were sitting in their bedrooms cowering in dark corners listening to Pulp and James albums. ‘Tomorrow’ is one of the reasons why. So many hooks. So much melody. And what a chorus. 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. `

James produced some notable and instantly recognisable hits from humble beginnings in Whalley Range, Manchester (I don't know if they lived in a rented room) in 1982. Nineteen Top 40 singles and fourteen Top 20 albums are not bad. After all, you would not be surprised if the band needed to challenge itself, to do something against the grain. James has done just that with Be Opened By The Wonderful. 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. 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.Top Of The World' sees the protagonist struggling to balance their Life. "If I will not be faithful/I must accept betrayal/When your turn comes to leave me/Will my freeways have failed?" A song about loss, specifically concerning the death of Booth's mother, 'Moving On' builds slowly. You begin to feel your heart beat a little more. Your breathing starts to become heavier. The eyes start to fill. This song takes you to a place where your experiences of loss float to the surface and take over. The album's finale, 'Laid', sees Booth examining the relationships of those around him. His voice soars high and merges with the strings, flying high like a leaf a breeze whilst a gentle guitar strums below—an excellent way to end.

The sixth annual National Album Day on Saturday 14th October, as the music community comes together to celebrate the art of the album, sees ... Read more Our Blog Tonight I raise my glass to an old friend. Angelo Badalamenti. God it was such a buzz! We opened up with ‘Come Home’, and we had a marching band who came in the venue with no music playing’, he says, ‘As they got halfway into the venue, they starting playing the riff, and I’ve never heard a roar like it. It was like scoring at Wembley! […] You realise the band doesn’t really belong to you, it belongs to them, like a football team belonging to the fans.’ There is a subtle intricate rawness to ‘Alaskan Pipeline’ from the 2001 album Pleased To Meet You. Lyrically brutal, you would never guess the peaks and troughs of the vocals and orchestra as they transport you to a place of denial through a true tale of unrequited love. “Richness” Their famous anthem ‘Sit Down’ is quirky as hell and a delight to listen to. I would love to hear this version sung somewhere cavernous to feel the vibration and emotion bounce around every square inch of space. Outstanding! Lookaway` is fairly ethereal but speeds up while remaining fairly dreamlike. From the intro, you wouldn`t guess that `Sit Down` was one of the bands most famous signature songs but it was always gonna sound unusual as you`ve known the standard for over thirty years. A re-imagining that i`m sure I’ll come to love as I did the original.Glennie clearly loves the band, the fans and the music, himself. With a new tour approaching, and the opportunity to perform with a full orchestra and choir, it seems that James’s fourth decade will by no means be their last! 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.

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. Sit Down' is a stripped-down song with Booth's vocals enveloped with stunning strings. The song sees Booth thank two women who had greatly influenced him – singer Patti Smith and author Doris Lessing. A largely sparse arrangement like this leaves little hiding place for his voice. Good job, he nails it. 'Alaskan Pipeline' continues the theme of less is more. A sparse ballad, it is most notable for the music. It creates a feeling that gnaws at you, slowly bringing you to a place where you feel like crying. I don't mind the addition of lyrics, but I would have preferred this to be an instrumental. 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 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.

James have really excelled themselves, orchestrating a true time capsule of thought-provoking and memory-laden songs. One of the greatest bands of a generation keep getting better, and Be Opened By The Wonderful is the proof.

Moving On was written by Tim after losing his mother and close friend within months of each other. Tim has described his mother dying in his arms as a beautiful experience. Of grief he says it “is an expression of how much you love that person. I embrace grief and it is a medal of love”. The feeling of love and grief and the outpouring of emotion in this version is heightened by the slower pace of the song, the soaring strings and the amazing chemistry and harmonies between Tim and Chloe’s voices. This added beauty reinforcing Tim’s view on death. 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. Of course the fact that these songs work so well in this way is also testament to the underlying quality of the songwriting of James – which has just been recognised at the 2023 Ivor Novello Awards, with the band being awarded the PRS for Music Icon Award for their enduring successful career and excellence in songwriting. Much deserved and about time too in my opinion, congratulations. 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.His advice to young musicians hoping to break into the scene is refreshingly simple: ‘You basically have to do it because you love it.’ He speaks about the importance of being honest with yourself, and letting the music be its own reward. 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. Whilst not the band’s best song, if James has a mission statement, it is surely ‘Sit Down’. Oversaturation simply cannot rob the Manchester band’s most successful single of its raw power. It’s still incredibly moving and inspirational all these years later.