Yummy, James

Thirty four years ago, James came into this writer’s musical orbit with the release of Gold Mother. An album of it’s time with toe tapping tunes allied to pointed lyrics of the world around us. The die was cast and, for the next few years at least, a new album release was purchased without too much second thought.

Time and music tastes moved on though and the band dropped down the list of bands that had to be listened to. That all changed though with the release of Living In Extraordinary Times in 2018, James were back to their best, anthemic tunes married to messages delivering Tim Booth’s views on the current state of the world at that time.

Move forward again to 2024, and with the release of Yummy, James brings together a dozen of their strongest songs in a collective package.

For a band of such maturity, it’s heartening to see they have lost none of their youthful endeavours, their creative spirit mixing songs about love with songs of despair.

Individually, the songs could be dropped into earlier albums and not feel that out of place. While the band have moved on with the times, the beat, the production, the vocals, the lyrics fundamentally follow a successful template that has seen them fill arenas as they move seamlessly around their fifth decade in music.

Standout tracks are opening track Is This Love, Shadow of a Giant and Mobile God.

As the album title suggests, this is a Yummy album to be savoured and, as we head to the OVO Hydro tomorrow night in Glasgow, I’m sure the live renditions of the selected tracks from this and their back catalogue will have us all tap dancing again.