Search - James :: Laid

Melancholia.

Angry Mofo | 07/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's get to the point - this is a wonderful album. In fact, it's very well one of the best albums I've ever heard, and I've heard quite a few. James themselves made no other albums of this calibre. This was their first collaboration with Brian Eno, and their first album after the sudden commercial success of Seven (which isn't nearly as good as Laid) - all the groundwork "laid" (ha! I make joke! funny!) for a landmark. Rather than hooks and pounding rhythms, this album concentrates on restraint and space, and it's all the better for it. The usual rock'n'roll percussion is conspicuously absent from most songs. What's present are eerie keyboard lines that build up out of nowhere and abruptly stop ("Knuckle Too Far"), hushed but persistent guitar lines ("P.S.", "Five-O"), soft acoustic guitars ("Lullaby"), violins ("Dream Thrum", "P.S."), and brief sounds that are almost like echoes but which, upon reflection, have a tendency to burn themselves into the brain ("Skindiving"). The one "loud" song here is also hardly conventional - rather than relying on riffs or basslines, "Sometimes" is a veritable cascade of guitars, much like the rain sung about in the song itself. The only really conventional song is "Low Low Low," whose pub-rock guitar line sounds oddly out of place given the remaining album."Sometimes" is probably the most immediate song here, given its indelible imagery. There are others, though. The title track is hilarious and melancholy at the same time, "Skindiving" is five minutes of surreal dreams, keyboard snatches and understated guitars that sounds like nothing on earth, "One of the Three" is an honest and simple meditation on religion and sacrifice. Then there is the album's emotional center. "Five-O" has a main guitar line reminiscent of old Spanish dance music and lyrics torn between fear and hope. Then "P.S." changes the tone to disappointment and features the album's best line ("you liar, you liar, all your words were just dust and moonshine") and a stunning ending (the guitars fade and the violin suddenly comes to prominence). Then there's "Everybody Knows", reminiscent of tango music and probably my favourite song on the album. The verses are those of a simple love song, the chorus is "but everybody knows you're fake, honey, everybody knows you're fake." Woohoo! Despondency masked with irony!So yes, I am very fond of this album, if you couldn't already tell. Not so concerning the band's other work, but just one great album is more than most bands make already."