catching up with some vibes (music, look you see) posts, then. indeed this is one that i did get, or rather received, on the day of release, but i have been somewhat busy. that another two (2) tape (disc) sets sat here sealed tells you, if you were interested, that time is tight. probably of (slightly) more interest is which tape (disc) i listened to, and that would be, as per the title, Yummy off of James.
at the time of writing, or this being published, the album has been out (so to speak) for a couple of weeks. which means in this day and age it has likely already fallen from thought. it's somewhere in the high teens in terms of albums released by James. further, improbably, it's their first ever number one record on the charts. this is something they engineered (more on that in a bit), and it remains a tragedy that their greatest work, Girl At The End Of The World, was robbed of such a title by a mysteriously large number of Adele "streams" at the time. one would have thought the "golden era" of James, with huge hits like Laid and, in particular, Sit Down, was a likely time for a number one album, but there were oh so many decent records out then.
so, is the album (Yummy) any good? having listened to it for most of the week it came out, yes, as it happens, quite to very good. the consistently high quality of their work for the last few years mostly remains in place. but, as has clouded the previous two to this, it's not Girl At The End Of The World. unfair, perhaps, as i doubt either they or any other band will record an album that good again. sure, to clarify, greater records made before that exist, but i am coming to conclude that it was truly the last ever really exceptional album ever to get made.
worst part, or moment, of Yummy? that's really, really easy. it's the ludicrously and needlessly long song called Shadow Of A Giant which dominates the middle of the record. for a start musically it very suspiciously sounds like just a prolonged moment off of What's Going On by 4 Non Blondes. yes that is a fine song, but if i wished to hear it i would play their record and not a James one. convoluted and forced is how it sounds, and the album would have been better (in my view, of course) had any of the extra four (4) tracks off of the "deluxe digital download" had been included instead. or, for that matter, a bit more work had been put into any of the "b side" extra disc on this "deluxe double tape (disc)" set.
i ended up purchasing two (2) copies, then. one was the double tape (disc) set, pictured here. actually think i placed the order whilst sat in New Zealand. then, on the weekend it was released, i got an email waving a discount code at me to buy the "digital deluxe version". at no stage did the band pretend that the many formats were anything other than an effort to make number one. which they did, and bravo for doing so in the face of competition from the juggernaut that is Beyonce and the return of Mark Knopfler. so, i taped ("burned") the digital deluxe thing onto a tape (disc) so i could listen to it as i travelled about these lands. that i was not inclined to change tape (disc) speaks of how Yummy is an album one can listen to a lot.
highlights of the album? pretty much everything that isn't Shadow Of A Giant. there is not a bad song on the rest of the record. actually it's better to say everything maintains an above average to excellent level, with excellent being the norm. ok, if you insist, Mobile God starts off excellent and then loses its way, but still, worth it for the start. if i had to choose favourites, probably Butterfly which i suspect was the intended name for the record, but just changed to a lyric from it so as to (presumably) avoid confusion with the celebrated Streisand album of that name. beyond that, Rogue, Stay, Way Over Your Head and The One With Swearing In The Title are all excellent.
the very day James hit number one with Yummy happened to be the same as the day that the latest cash cow off of Taylor Swift came out. i have a vague notion of who or what she is, and understand enough to know that it is likely she'll just dominate the charts for however long it amuses her to. still, such would not stop anyone who has not already done so from getting Yummy and hearing what is mostly, overall, a truly excellent album. yes, quite likely to be "album of the year", unless something truly extraordinary comes along. based on the single being played off the imminent Kasabian album, make that extremely very likely.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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