The clue is in the tile of this album. Quite a witty title at that and surely providing the opportunity for some sharp observations on the pressures that modern life puts on people struggling to find their way to maturity. After all, even the ultimate sadness of a mid-life crisis has its moments (the sports car, the affair with the bimbo, the divorce, your children not talking to you for a decade…) but what is delivered here is instead infused with an almost relentless feeling of hopelessness.
Now introspection is something that I would associate with Jack James having both reviewed his last album (Lights Off Headphones On) and seen him perform live but this time he seems to have lost his compassion for the human race. Even though the first song on this album (“Gathering Dust”) has a similar feel to the songs in his previous album, it’s off to depression land thereafter with the strange thing being that Mr James’ voice gets steadily more uncomfortable with his own words as the album progresses – such as in “The Teacher” or “Past Sayings”- ending up sounding just plain awkward.
I’m quite happy to accept that writing songs can be a cathartic thing but it’s hard to care about another collection of tales of rather poorly expressed hopelessness and self pity and Mr James’ customary laconic poetry certainly seems to have departed the building with this one. That does sound negative – and it is meant to be – for Glasgow has no shortage of depressing, self loathing singer songwriters. In the review of his last album, I remarked that his songs would find resonance with many people. It worries me that shoegazing self pity shown here might also find resonance with many in the recession ridden, depression filled days.
The album is available as a free download.