Laid

JAMES: "Laid" (Fontana)

WITH BRIAN Eno behind the desk, James have created a slick, atmospheric, flawlessly produced album of so little significance that it does nothing but prove that James are on their way down unless there's a major rethink and drastic change of direction.

Whereas the band's last album Seven had more than its share of rousing and just plain good songs, the dropping of the brass section has taken the fanfare out of this work and songs often meander and repeat themselves too often. The number of tracks that fall into a formula of sing-speak verses (usually only two of them) and choruses dependent on the repetition of one line which is later used as a fade-out is actually embarrassing.

On 'Sometimes (Lester Piggott)' there are fourteen repetitions of the line "sometimes when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see your soul," ten of which create the most boring fadeout known to the recording process. Elsewhere there are eighteen "One of the three"s (not to mention an extra handful of "one in three'"s), eight particularly heartfelt and drawn out "Oh, I've changed"s, twelve "Say something . . ."s

Of course, most pop songs repeat themselves like crazy, but because many of the ones here clock in at over four minutes and contain so few other lyrics, the redundancies becomes particularly tiresome. In addition, while repetition can often be used to build climaxes, the pace and mood of Laid does nothing but fluctuate between dull and irritating. Slow atmospheric songs drag on and when the beat picks up, Booth starts using voice affectations which make the ridiculous stuff he's saying even that much more twee.

His tendency to take on the air of a preacher reciting a sermon to music adds to the album's amazing capacity to annoy the listener after too many plays. That Booth doesn't seem to have anything to say that can't be condensed into a sentence doesn't help matters any.

And that's coming from someone who used to like this band.

• Tara McCarthy