Album Review: James - Living In Extraordinary Times

Some lives are full of marvellous contradictions.

James started out on Manchester's Factory Records label in the early '80s but were never really a comfortable fit with that Joy Division/A Certain Ratio scene. Later they'd have a massive hit with Sit Down, which seemed to define 'baggy', but they weren't down with that either. And when they made the super-sexy Laid, they were messing around with gender roles when most other Brits were dreaming of dancing in Ibizan superclubs.

Fact is, they've always been something of the underdogs in indie, albeit ones that could chew the legs off the bigger boys. And so it's almost a shock Tim Booth spends so much of the band's 15th album preoccupied with Trump's world and Brexit. Is it too easy? Well, some things need to be said, such as Many Faces' dismay at racism's re-rising popularity or the furious gathering sound of Better Than That (a title allegedly taken from Booth baiting the waves when paddle-boarding) challenging those who let it all happen through apathy or inaction.

We are indeed living in the most unfortunate of extraordinary times and it shows in James' most intense album of recent years.