Album Review: James, Yummy

Manchester indie legends James may be together 42 years, but they still have more to say than most outfits half their age. The over-riding mood of Yummy is one of foreboding, with frontman Tim Booth cautioning about the state of our planet – a recurring theme throughout the band’s career – and the pervasiveness of technology.

‘Mobile God’ refers to the ubiquitous smartphone, the “spy in your pocket”. Meanwhile, on ‘Life Is A Fucking Miracle’, Booth cries “I’m another dumb fish/ in another dumb bowl/ screaming in an echo chamber”. Here, over a pulsing house rhythm, he’s bemoaning our ridiculous tendency to miss the big things, while staring into the tiny screens in our hands.

‘Is This Love?’ is not a Bob Marley cover but a similarly soaring, arms-in-the-air anthem, proving James can still pen bona fide singalong classics when the mood takes them. Recent single ‘Our World’ is a catchy warning about how we are destroying our home, and the “many ways can we kill ourselves / Plastics, oil, forever chemicals” in a world where “fake democracies come cheap.”

From the ecological message of the hypnotic ‘Better With You’ to the stop/start state-of-the-nation address of  ‘Hey’ – in which Booth laments a world where “belief is stronger than proof” – proselytising has rarely sounded so infectious. Brimming over with soaring melodies and toe-tapping rhythms, Yummy is like a poppier OK Computer.

8/10