James - Girl at the End of the World

There is almost the best and the worst in this album. And sometimes inside a very song. Like in "Attention", where all the first part is dull whereas, after 2 minutes, it gets carried away and touches the sublime, reminding me of the best Alphaville's brainwaves ("Ivory tower" for instance). The divinely melodic synth part lifts me up in the air, while the raging and saturated battering of Tim Booth's beautiful and particular voice provides an amazing intensity.

Usually with our Mancunian guys, the first piece is the best, or one of the best pieces; but here, let’s confess, "Bitch" is a disappointment. Why did they get lost in those funky technoid twitches? It isn’t this way they will do us the Whiplash knack again a priori.

Fortunately, the following raises the level, with a "To my Surprise" and its typical James catchy chorus. Then a "Nothing But Love", with its old-chestnut backing vocals, which falls in their folk classics (with those "Waltzing Along", "Five-O", "Strangers", "Give it Away"...)

After "Dear John", you witness a succession of seemingly more or less ordinary pieces, the worst being reached in my opinion with the bland "Surfer's Song" and its tiring tchakapoom.

Resurgence of interest when comes "Alvin" and its dislocated lyrics... in French! (chorus excepted). It’s a first time – and last? – in the band 36-year-old history already. Time for a good "Waking" with a great deal of rolling rhythmics and its lalala ("lies lies lies" in reality), and its lyrics fighting conformism, and you conclude with the eponymous "Girl at the End of the World". Bedecked with these Booth’s signature vocal unhookings, a lively track that will soon appear as a classic in the concerts, I guess.

Naturally, after many listenings you eventually get used, and find at least bearable these bridges from a good moment to the next one. Until you almost forget the worst to remember only the best.