20YAT #12 James – Whiplash
UK album chart peak: #9
Unusually for an already-established British indie band in the mid-90s – especially one from Manchester – James took a break for the entire imperial phase of Britpop. Accordingly, the music on Whiplash is the first recorded by the band since mid-1993, and that time off reveals itself here in a variety of ways, good and bad: although there are songs where the band ring with the thrill of rebirth, several moments of lethargy reveal a bunch of rusty musicians still getting up to speed.
Perhaps most unfortunately, though, Whiplash is dominated by a swathe of tracks that suggest James were somewhat intimidated by their usual instruments after such a long time away, and prefered to resort to that dead end of the damned rock band: electronic reinvention. And what a misguided decision. The album’s central quartet of Greenpeace, Go To The Bank, Play Dead and Avalanche are even more half-baked and gauche than David Bowie’s attempt at something similar earlier in the month. At least Bowie had the temerity to commit wholeheartedly to his new aesthetic; James, instead, try to mush the darkness and claustrophobia of drum’n’bass into their existing configuration of crusty yet likeable indie pop, leaving a spectacle as unedifying as one might expect.
That mid-way change in direction damages Whiplash irrevocably. At the time, one could perhaps admire James’ guts for attempting something different, but twenty years on, instead of demonstrating their sophistication, it only exposes their narrowness. It’s a shame, too: that exact narrowness, recontextualised as focus, is the germ of both Tomorrow and She’s A Star, two terrific pieces of anthemic songwriting that may not reinvent the wheel but nonetheless smooth it to perfection, and at least two further jauntily melancholic ballads in Waltzing Along and the closing Blue Pastures.
Those four songs have aged surprisingly well as lean, uplifting and accessible pop, untainted by any production fads that might’ve befallen them had James been more involved with Britpop. The same can’t be said for Whiplash as a whole album, though. By no stretch is it a significant mark on the musical canvas of 1997; all the same, it provides cautionary notice that broadening one’s range is not the straightforward exercise that forthcoming albums from other acts in 1997 might suggest.
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Also out this week:
White Town – Women In Technology (Chrysalis). Chart peak #83
Elliott Smith – Either/Or (Kill Rock Stars). Did not chart
The Orb – Orblivion (Island). Chart peak #19
