I Know What James Are Here For (Fresh As A Daisy - The Singles - James)

Member Name: paranormalhandy

Product:	Fresh As A Daisy - The Singles - James
Date:	09/05/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Handy collection of all the hits and misses

Disadvantages: Scant collection of all the hits and misses

There are actually two versions of this 2007 singles collection, although the fuller, more satisfying 2-CD version (which features James' whole career, rather than just the post-1990 highlights) seems to be unavailable at the moment (May 2009), and can only be purchased second-hand.

That's a real shame, particularly since this single CD version of "The Singles" seems to have a little too much in common with the earlier "Best of James" from 1998. This over-lap may well put off some purchasers, although the admission price of under a fiver seems reasonable enough - especially as you now get to hear most James single releases right up to their split in 2001. Also included are two "unique to this album" new songs (without which no modern greatest hits is fully legal). Actually, considering they were the first stirrings of James' 2007 reformation, I don't wish to sound churlish. It's just (a) "Chameleon" in particular is like a mid-life crisis in U2's studio, and (b) some late-period James singles ("Jam-J", "Runaground", "We're Going to Miss You" and "Sit Down '98") are left off to make room for these two newies.

So - the songs. Well, as the TV advert for the "Best Of" used to say, "You know more James songs than you think"*, and they are probably right. Especially now, as late 80s/early 90s media students float to the top of the world of television, and include songs from their youth on any footage they deem appropriate (just last week, for example, "The One Show" soundtracked a story about mushroom-growing with "On Top of the World" from "Gold Mother"). James also had a subtle ability to fit into most of the guitar-group fads of the last decade: "Sit Down" saw them briefly crowned kings of Madchester; Neil Young (and grunge) inspired the "Laid" album"; with "She's a Star" they swam in the lagoons of Britpop's secondary league; and even their last ever single "Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)" tapped into the acoustic zeitgeist. They were either very astute trend-followers or (more truthfully) always a band with a singular, but adaptable, outlook.

NOTE: "The Singles", just like "The Best Of" before it, does not feature the singles in chronological order. If you want to hear them as they were released, the order should be: 3, 4, 15, 20, 16, 7, 1, 10, 2, 6, 13, 19, 18, 12, 5, 9, 11, 17, 8, 14. In actual fact, the running order is this:

(1) Ring the Bells (from "Seven", 1992) You've got to admit, this is a fantastic way to start the album. A spine-tingling adrelanised paeon to personal freedom and redemption (Tim Booth's rather found of these sort of things), it bounces along on trumpet, acoustic guitar and what sounds like a glockenspiel. The lyrics "I no longer feel my God is watching over me" was one I used to cling to as an adolescent when things were going wrong. Now, in my mid-thirties, with the spring sunshine coming through the window, I still almost (but not quite) feel the urge to dance. As Tim's voice grows higher, over whispered, breathless words buried deep in the mix, you can't help but wonder how the album can possibly top its opener. 10/10.

(2) ... But it can: "Sometimes" ("Laid", 1993). The lead single from James' most popular studio album, "Sometimes" is unusual in that it appears to have only one chord (or is it key? I'm not very musical). Anyway, it propels along trance-like on this one single acoustic note, played by a plethora of guitars. The lyrics (a beautiful evocative poem featuring a storm above a dream-like fishing port, and a young boy's death as lightning strikes him and "he falls into the gutter, cut strings, legs twitching") are startling good - and err on just the right side of pretentiousness. It's a rolling and churning song, like the waves of the sea, and has touched a great many fans over the year. 10/10.

(3) "How Was It For You?" ("Gold Mother", 1990) The earliest recording (if not the earliest song) included on the album, there is nothing technically bad about this song - in fact, its lyrics about sexuality and control are startling when put next to contemporary words from Ian Brown or Shaun Ryder. However, musically it just doesn't seem to rise above the ordinary at best. The production is muddy, and the cowbells and Larry's rock guitars cover the vocals in a echoy mess. Tim even ends with what sounds like a grunt. 5/10.

(4) "Come Home (Flood Mix)" ("Gold Mother", 1991) Like quite a few Madchester tracks, "Come Home" was re-issued and remixed a few times, with an eye on various different markets. The version included on "Fresh as a Daisy - The Singles" is the semi-dance remix by Flood, released as a single in summer 1990 (after "Gold Mother", which features an early mix of "Come Home" as the first track). This "Flood Mix" later replaced the original mix on the re-release of "Gold Mother" which came out after "Sit Down" became was a hit in 1991. Got that? Good. "Come Home" is actually a rattling good pop song, which suffered somewhat from overplay "back in the day". The lyrics are again concerned with sexual politics (they were written just after Booth had become a father) and musically it's showcase for Andy Diagram's klaxon trumpet playing. "Come Home" was originally written as the band jammed around the chord structure of "Sit Down", reworking it to a point where this wasn't blatantly obvious; and "Come Home" and "Sit Down" certainly have the same catchy-but-anthemic quality. 8/10

(5) "Destiny Calling" ("The Best of", 1998) This is an odd one, in its own way - one of the two singles recorded exclusively for 1998's "Best Of", and subsequently carried over to "Fresh as a Daisy" nine years later (the other "Best of" single, the slightly underwhelming "Runaground", is atually one of the current compilation's omitions). It is a fun, glam stomp of mid-90s Britpop, and one which pointed the way to towards the pop delights of James' next album "Millionaries" a year later. The lyrics touch upon some of the similar themes as "Johnny Yen", their hardy perennial concert-stopper, originally recorded on debut album "Stutter" back in 1986 and featured live ever since, but the rather po-faced reflections on the stardom and "the price of fame" are jettisoned for a jaunty lyric which memorably brings in the commodification of the Spice Girls. The only downside to "Destiny Calling" is that it does suffer from lack of depth - and a passing similarity to the far, far worse "She Left Me On a Friday", released by Shed Seven around the same time. 7/10

(6) "Laid" ("Laid", 1993) One of the few songs of the compilation that still gets regular airplay, "Laid" is a bitter sparkling pop thing, remarkably short in length and simple but affecting in execution - a bit like one of those early, slightly left-field Beatles b-sides that hide away on the "Past Masters" series. "Laid" is a sixties-ish skiffle of a song, and if you don't listen closely you could almost ignore it (especially as the song that follows directly after on this compilation is one of the most monolithic in James' career) but that would be a shame - the lyrics have a sexual playfulness that Tim Booth was trying to attain since the late eighties, and it is a great "flail around" song for the MTV Unplugged generation. 7/10.

(7) "Born of Frustration" ("Seven", 1992) In its original form, as a single released before the parent album, "Born of Frustration" was a long and complicated thing, teased out to nearly six minutes with extended intros and outros. When the album came along, these were cut considerably, reducing the majesty of the song and leaving it neutered. I had hoped, that since is meant to be a "Singles" collection, that the full original CD/12" mix would have been reinstated, as it has been deleted for many years. Sadly, either through lack of space or (more likely) because the compiler didn't release that the single version was different from the album mix, it's the shorter version from "Seven" that's included. This is a particular bugbear of mine, and I'll return to it later! Anyway, the song: it swirls and whoops and hollers over instrumentation that's both robust and gossamer (and, okay, sounds a bit like "Don't You Forget About Me"). You either love Tim's lyrics or don't - and in that case, the imagery of butterflies wings may seem too pretentious by half. If you like your songs heavy, dense and with a wide palate, though, this is one of the best. 7/10

(8) "Chameleon" ("Fresh as a Daisy", 2007) One of two "new songs" recorded for this compilation, by the core James trio of Booth/Gott/Glennie - and this song is terrible. Over a fat guitar line and tinny keyboard, you can almost hear the mid-life crises creak and groan under the weight of earnestness. There is no room for fun or (heaven forfend!) melody in the track - although its discordant aspects may appeal to post-punkers wanting to re-hook up with the James of the Factory era (which considering the personnel, is appropriate). Thankfully their next album, 2008's comeback "Hey Ma", would feature far, far better songs than this offering. 2/10

(9) "I Know What I'm Here For" ("Millionaires", 1999) The first appearance of a track from my favourite James album (of the ones compiled here, anyway) and it is a tremendous call to arms, with its all its erstwhile folkiness hidden behind keyboards seemingly stolen from Stephen Hague-era Pet Shop Boys. Backing vocals are shredded through a vocoder (with a good deal more subtlety than other indie bands at the time - witness the Divine Comedy's roughly contemporaneous "Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count") and the chorus swells like an urgent sea-shanty. At the time, it was overlooked as a single, but now seems like a pretty stunning refutation of the insidious mellowing of Britpop that was happening all around. 6/10

(10) "Seven" ("Seven" 1992) A beautiful closer to its eponymous album, "Seven" is a fantastic flash of a song, which forks like lightning across Tim Booth's ever-plaintive lyrical conceits. Far removed from "Born of Frustration" (literally, as "Born of Frustration" started the "Seven" album), it does unfortunately share one thing with its more bombastic distant neighbour - "Fresh as a Daisy" includes the album version, not the single "remix". And this is hugely irritating, especially as a similar error was made on 2004's "The Collection" compilation. Don't get me wrong, this song is wonderful - and massively overlooked within James' back catalogue as a whole - but if you want more dark and shade, and those little sparks of genius that would lead to the following year's "Laid" album, I would recommend you search out the four-track CD single "Seven" EP, which includes a remixed version with a little more depth. 7/10

(11) "Just Like Fred Astaire" ("Millionaires", 1999) James ultimate "first dance at the wedding" song, a weepy stab at male emotionalism as sweaty palms hold on to a waist in a white dress, and dream of the future ... For some strange legal reason, the song couldn't just be called "Fred Astaire" (or even "Feel Like Fred Astaire", which are the actual lyrics), but at least it gave it some badly-needed publicity angle on first release in 1999. It sold better than "I Know What I'm Here For", and a lot, lot more than the third "Millionaires" single "We're Going to Miss You" (which, despite being brilliant, isn't even included on the 1-CD version of "Fresh as a Daisy"). "Just Like Fred Astaire" is the sound of a Radio 6 listener remembering that he's married, and smiling at the thought of her. 7/10.

(12) "Waltzing Along" ("The Best of James", 1998) Originally recorded as an album track for 1997's "Whiplash", "Waltzing Along" was reworked as a solid, dependable single, and this remix (not, for once, the album version) was included on "The Best of James" in 1998 - and it now reappears on "Fresh as a Daisy". Unfortunately, "Waltzing Along" is an overly-conventional, geometrically-precise song, which no amount of trademark slide guitar will put right. In 1997, James were a band who suddenly found that they had a new line-up (again), and this newness may explain some of the more boring, burnished aspects of the music (although sadly, it also added musical tropes - the slide guitar riffs, the choir-like blokey choruses - that would rapidly become cliches as the band's commercial stock nose-dived after 1998. One for the skip button. 4/10

(13) "Say Something" ("Laid", 1993) James' only double A-side (released in April 1994 with the "Wah Wah" track "Jam-J", which isn't included here), "Say Something" has more light, shade and room to breathe in the first ten seconds than "Waltzing Along" has in its whole, precisely-measured four minutes. This is a song that shakes and shambles like the James of (very) old, the hesitant folk-punk band the fizzled briefly on Sire Records in the mid-eighties - only this time James have Eno and multi-instrumentalists on board. Again, it seems quite short and hushes, and almost inconsequential, but the obliquness of the music and (almost) lack of a cohesion pulls you in. Lyrically we find Booth again on a plaintive tip, eager to communicate with a lover or a friend but finding rejection: it's standard indie wordsmithery, but done with panache. All in all, one of the compilations searing highlights. 9/10.

(14) "Who Are You" ("Fresh as a Daisy", 2007) The second of the who "exclusive" tracks recorded by Booth/Gott/Glennie for this compilation - and its certainly a lot better than "Chameleon" (not a hard thing to do) with some extraordinary wind-tunnel falsetto work from Mr Booth. A churning, rather U2-like guitar chops up the air and leads into a hushed, threatening verse and soaring chorus. Structurally, its similar to James' other "hey! we're back!" single, 1997's "She's a Star", but by 2007 the charts and the radio had changed, and the single (an iTunes download only) failed to chart or make much of any real impact. It has the James "rolling sound" of old, though, and can sit comfortably alongside twenty (or at least seventeen, say) of their finest commercial moments. 7/10.

(15) "Lose Control" ("Gold Mother", 1991) Originally released in autumn 1990, "Lose Control" was one of two singles (the other being the far more famous "Sit Down") which were shoe horned onto the re-released version of "Gold Mother" in 1991 (the original 1990 edition was markedly different) - and it's an odd one. The original CD/12" came with a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" as a b-side (alongside an early version of "Laid" song "Out to Get You") - and the spirit of John Cale, and those keening, experimental VU tracks he took the helm on, inhabits every room of the "Lose Control" haunted house. Trumpet and violin swirl and mix like a desert storm above Booth's sand-blasted vocals. It certainly stands out above the standard 1990 indie/dance Madchester fair - the closest contemporaneous thing I can think of is, maybe, Flowered Up's "Weekender" during the amazingly blissed-out bits, or "Higher Than the Sun" by Primal Scream. Having said all that, I now realise I've enjoyed writing about it far more than actually listening to it - and maybe this is its problem. In common with many James songs, it lacks fundamental depth, and a strong enough pop hook. 5/10

(16) "Sound" ("Seven", 1992) A late 1991 single with the uneviable task of following up "Sit Down", "Sound" is included here in its full 12" mix (the same version as can be found on the "Seven" album. I suppose if the shorter radio edit had been included, more room might have been found for the "Born of Frustration" single mix - but again, I suspect the compiler didn't even know a shorter version existed. And, if I'm to be honest, in this particular case I'm prepared to make an exception. "Sound" is quite simply spectacular - a wonderful 6-minute trance track, which judders along on a guitar-and-drum interplay that sounds for all the world like 1000 rulers jiggling off the edge of 1000 desks. Guitars rise and fall across the whole with tectonic (and teutonic) slowness, similar in a way to an instrumental dance track. Tim's vocals are, as always, extraordinarily good, and the whole affect is like a new dawn - think Jean Michel Jarre reworked by Future Sound of London. Breathtaking, just breathtaking. 10/10

(17) "Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)" ("Pleased to Meet You", 2001) This, so far, is James only full single release (with b-sides and a physical presence) of the new century, released in 2001 (and, remarkably, the single edit is included rather than the album mix). I'll be honest - I just don't get this song. It seems that many James fans are rabid for it, travelling continents to hear the boys play it live, but to me it is almost totally unmemorable. And the (intentional?) allusion to the far better Marr/Sumner/Tennant composition "Getting Away With It" just heightens how dull it is in comparison. This song's fousty-acousticky feel fitted in well in a charts full of Travis and the early, sub-Radiohead Coldplay, but when James called it a day back in 2002, I wasn't that bothered. And this track was one of the reasons. 3/10

(18) "Tomorrow" ("Whiplash" 1997) A song that has grown in popularity over the years, and still gets some airplay, "Tomorrow" had quite a tortuous early history. It originally appeared as a 2-minute throwaway on the 1994 album "Wah Wah", a James/Brian Eno collaborative album which featured off-cuts and jams which had sprung up spontaneously during the "Laid" recording sessions. Three years later, it reappeared on their next album, "Whiplash", and by this time it had been polished up into a thing of amazing beauty - it was hardly surprising that James released it as the album's second single. "Tomorrow" actually ushered in a brief era of James going hell-for-leather towards contemporary alt-rock pop (along with "Waltzing Along" and "Destiny Calling") which only broke down following 1998's hushed single "Runaground". Basically, it's "Sometimes" made shorter, faster and more muscular, and then set hurtling down a mineshaft for four minutes. This vertiginous recording, one of James' best, deserves a: 9/10

(19) "She's a Star" ("Whiplash" 1997) In 2009, this is probably James' most familiar song to new listeners - by virtue of the fact it appears on virtually every UK TV documentary whenever a Hollywood actress hoves into view. It is also startlingly similar in places to Natalie Imbruglia's version of "Torn", which was released a few months later. Departing guitarist Larry Gott has expressed a regret since that chord changes can't be copyrighted! "She's a Star" is in no way my favourite James track, but I can understand why people respond to its directness and melody. It's just a shame that James spent the subsequent four years trying, and failing, to attain this level of perfection again. 5/10

(20) "Sit Down" ("Gold Mother" 1991) Crushingly, and very very annoyingly, the little-heard original version of "Sit Down", released in June 1989 as a stand-alone single, isn't included on either the 1- or 2-CD editions of "Fresh as a Daisy". This second mix was recorded by an expanded James line up late in 1990, and removes some of the lightness of touch of the original (and nearly four minutes of a piano solo). Released, again as a stand-alone single, in early 1991, it rapidly became one of the biggest records of that year, that decade, and many people's lives. Recognising a cash-cow when they saw it, Fontana then deleted the last James album "Gold Mother" and reissued it so that fans could buy "Sit Down" as part of the album. Now, this was my first point of entry for James, the first point of entry for a hell of a lot of people, and it would be churlish to talk about overplay, or indeed over-production. But it DOES sound like "On the Waterfront" by Simple Minds - whereas the original version sounded like Josef K singing folk. That's all I'm saying. In any case, no James "best of" could exist without it. 7/10

So, in conclusion, should you buy this album? Well, yes - particularly if you don't already own "The Best of James" and want a one-stop-shop of hits and misses. However, if you already on the "Best Of" and want to explore more - or have fond memories of James' earlier days - I would rather recommend the 2CD version, which is currently unavailable to review on Dooyoou. The 2-CD set includes many other magnificient tracks, including the full "Village Fire" EP of James' first five ever recorded songs, the long-long 1986 single "Chainmail" (mastered from Jim Glennie's original 12", as the tapes have been lost), further Sire singles "What For?" and "Ya Ho" (annoyingly, not included in its calypso-fied single version), the 1986 non-single but live-staple "Johnny Yen", the rare 1994 single version of "Jam-J" (double a-side with "Say Something"), "Runaground", "We're Going To Miss You" (again, not included in its single version) and the two new "exclusive" tracks bringing up the rear, where you can ignore them. Even the 2-CD set isn't perfect - aside from the quibbles written above, it leaves off the original Rough Trade versions of "Sit Down" and "Come Home", as well as the 1998 Apollo 440 "Sit Down" remix. But maybe they will be for another, later compilation! OVERALL: 7/10

* - Also used to advertise a greatest hits of Crowded House called "Recurring Dream"

Summary: Buy the 2-CD set