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Style survivors

James mix old U2 with new trip-hop

by Gary Susman

[James] "Everybody thinks the new wave is super/Just ask Linda Ronstadt or even Alice Cooper." So sang Weird Al Yankovic two decades ago in his parody "It's Still Billy Joel to Me," at a time when seemingly everyone in the pop universe was jumping on an up-from-the-underground bandwagon. In those days, it was the skinny-tie, power-pop, post-punk, so-called new wave. Today, it's electronica, techno, jungle, drum-and-bass, whatever they're calling it this week. Mainstream popsters from U2 to Eric Clapton are trip-hopping all over each other in the rush to make electronic hay while the ambient sun shines.

So listeners can be forgiven if they perceive the veteran pop sextet James as only the most recent Tricky-come-lately on their new release Whiplash (Fontana/Mercury). The Manchester-based band have been around for 14 years, building a rep on endless touring, finally breaking through in America with the goofy title track to their sixth album, 1993's Laid. The group's traditional pop smarts were evident, both in the tightly crafted arrangements and singer Tim Booth's literate, introspective lyrics (he named the band after James Joyce). A cursory listen to the 1993 edition of James wouldn't have suggested a band eager to rumble in the electronic jungle.

Still, in 1994, after three years of touring America, James nearly fell apart over the departure of longtime guitarist Larry Gott, the discovery that the band owed five years of back taxes, and Booth's creative restlessness. James released Wah Wah, a double album of experimental outtakes from the Laid sessions; waited while Booth satisfied his solo-project jones with 1995's Booth and the Bad Angel, an album he made with atmospheric composer Angelo Badalamenti; and finally reunited in early 1996 to record Whiplash, with consulting producer Brian Eno, who had overseen Laid. (Actually twiddling the knobs on Whiplash was producer Stephen Hague.) Given the presence of ambient godfather Eno and New Order vet Hague, as well as the three years of esoteric experimenting, the electronic noodling on Whiplash seems less a jarring jump into trendiness than a logical evolution.

Perhaps in an effort not to frighten off old fans, the new album moves only gradually into the jungle. The lead track, "Tomorrow," echoes "Laid" in David Baynton-Power's galloping, heart-racing drumbeats. Its dramatic build-up of rhythmic tension, soaring guitar riffs (played by Gott's fine replacement, Adrian Oxaal), circular chord progression, and vaguely inspirational lyrics all recall U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You." Booth's keening, ringing, breathy voice evokes Bono's throughout Whiplash.

"Lost a Friend" continues in a similar vein, as does the single, "She's a Star," with Booth showing off his fine falsetto and the band displaying a penchant for Beatlesque harmonies. There's even a folksy, pub-sing-along, may-the-road-rise-to-meet-you song called "Waltzing Along" (though it's in a 4/4 shuffle) before the trip-hop hits the fans.

The new stream begins to flow under "Greenpeace," where the burbling electronic undercurrent sets the mood for a compassion-fatigued meditation on environmentalism. James expertly evoke a similar sense of ennui and futility with the electronic bleeps of "Go to the Bank," which wryly offers consumerism as a cure for depression and heartbreak. The band explore a variety of other soundscapes, to uplifting, ironic, or brooding effect, on the next few songs before working their way back out of the electronic underbrush with the final two tracks. Even here, on the eerie "Watering Hole" and the deceptively quiet pastoral "Blue Pastures," there's a sinister humming synthesized ostinato.

Yet the most stirring songs on Whiplash reflect a surprisingly gloomy vision in their lyrics. "Lost a Friend" moans about the narcotizing effects of television. "She's a Star" is actually the tale of a lonely, unappreciated woman. "Avalanche" offers a bitter fuck-you to an ambitious adversary. That these tunes still play as anthemic fist wavers is testament to the band's expertise at creating rousing, rich textures. (Besides Booth, Baynton-Power, and Oxaal, the line-up includes bassist Jim Glennie, keyboardist Mark Hunter, and violinist Saul Davies.) Nonetheless, it's unusual to see a Beatles-inspired band with a full-time fiddle player experimenting with cutting-edge electronic music. Maybe James named the album Whiplash after the way one feels trying to look backward while moving forward.

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