In a parallel universe this post is where I wax lyrical about the joys of listening to Manchester-indie-masters James. However, in this universe that we inhabit together I’m not going to. I relegated all the albums I have by James into my secondary not-so-good collection a year or so ago – perhaps the last time I did my CD marathon. I’m just not feeling it anymore when it comes to James; my interest has fizzled out. They were always a band I had to be in the mood for and I simply haven’t been in the mood to listen to them for yonks.
So what do I have in the ‘J’ section. Well there’s 3 albums and 2 are bobby-dazzlers.
Get Born is the second album by indie Australian rockers Jet featuring the awesome ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’, ‘Look What You’ve Done’ and ‘Get What You Need’ and the only slightly less awesome ‘Radio Song’, ‘Rollover D.J.’ and ‘Cold Hard Bitch’. I like Jet a lot. There’s Stones and Beatles influences in there for sure, but their sound is good, fresh and raw. Get Born is almost the best album in my ‘J’ section.
Almost because I am the proud owner of The Jam Compact Snap! a greatest hits collection that I got for £3 from Tesco. It contains all the hits and never fails to transport me back to my youth playing pool in Rhyl for two 10p pieces and incorrectly singing ‘he’s a right one, he’s a right one…’ to ‘Eton Rifles’. It is sixty minutes of brilliant music with Paul Weller at his best. I am not a fan of the Style Council and I only like a few of his solo singles, but when he was with the Jam wow!
Last and least (but better than James I guess) is JJ72 with their eponymous album. Really poor whiny vocals on most tracks let the music of these Irish rockers down. The classic “October Swimmer” and “Oxygen” stand head and shoulders above the rest of the tracks. ‘Long Way South’ and ‘Algeria’ are also quite good with influences of Placebo and Smashing Pumpkins in the mix.
couchmagpie 