just a random celebration, to be sure, of the third anniversary of the release of Girl At The End Of The World. it was, is, according to them official registers and that, their fourteenth album. and full worthy of celebration.
at the great risk of getting punched in the face off of Roger Daltrey, disrespecting two superb albums off of Suede, disgracing myself in the face of Bowie's final release and offending Ian Brown, it remains, look you see, the case that this record is the best one i have heard in the last three years. if i do one of them "best of the decade" posts, should i make it to the end of this decade, i dare say it would argue the case for being the best of that, too.
it is a fluid, fluent album, drawing rather than commanding your attention from start to finish. once bands prided themselves on constructing an album that "made sense" as a collection. whereas those days are mostly gone (bar the two Suede records of late), James showed there is still the means and the opportunity to do it still.
one of the best things about this record was that it is not "just me" who fell in love with it. famously, perhaps infamously, it was number one on the basis of sales in the mid-week chart on its week of release. and yet somehow within 3 days the then current Adele album managed to be "streamed" enough to ensure that James were not officially number one with it. whereas once our charts were our pride and the envy of the world, they have now been inexplicably corrupted by all this very easy to manipulate "streaming counts as sales" nonsense, with the powers at be, in what can only be described as a demented way, absolutely ruthlessly determined that the biggest sellers and the most successful chart acts of all time must be Adele and that Ed Sheridan (or whatever).
but, the positives. Girl At The End Of The World remains as fresh, relevant and as damned near perfect now, three years on, as when i first heard it. i can recall the first time i played it. the initial reaction was "wow", and then some 30 or so minutes later being astonished that they had kept the momentum right across it all. for people who appreciate and wish to listen to music, rather than having it as droning, streaming wallpaper, this is an album that will live on.
astonishingly, the followed it up with an album which was almost as good, in the form of Living In Extraordinary Times. sadly, though, the ten or so really good tracks are weighed down by the (at least) two which fall into the folly of populist, at the moment "Trumps's a w@nker, ha ha ha" business. whether the statement is valid or not, it's a displaced one coming off a Manchester band, and manages to pollute the sense of the whole record, making it feel instantly dated. i don't listen to it a lot at all, whereas i frequently return to Girl At The End Of The World.
whilst i suspect you can "stream" the album, from what i can see Girl At The End Of The World can be bought, or if you like purchased, for south of £10 on CD. this would be, for those who do not have it, what i would wholeheartedly suggest you do.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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