BurtReynolds wrote:there last two albums are painful to listen to for me (James' strange delivery especially), but I still want to see them live again.
agreed. when i last saw them in 2009 the songs from evil urges sounded tolerable. but i have zero desire to hear anything post-Z. those last two albums are pretty much unlistenable.
I had Circuital in the car the other day for as long as my wife could tolerate and I still think it's an excellent album. What really occurred to me though was that even though I haven't engaged in pot smoking in a really really long time, this album is sort of tailor made for that experience.
what most people are missing is that Z had the best production of any album thanks to john lecke, 2nd place being circuital, and jim james voices decline. listen to Z or okonokons and songs like the wordless chorus outro where james is wailing away with high notes and compare that to recent tours. he can't hit those high notes anymore. on top of that he's reduced the reverb both in the studio and live (listen to recent golden takes). the non stop touring is a double edge sword - they're one of the tightest bands around and have honed a unique sound and always deliver. the downside is james' voice is declining.
i'm not saying his voice is a problem, its just in decline. his voice and their sound is always primary compared to their songwriting. i do agree that some of the songs off the last two albums have been sub par, but there are just as many, if not more, really good songs out of the last two. touch me 1&2, smoking from shootin, circuital, wonderful come to mind.
saw jim james tuesday night at the 930 club. played 2 sets, about 2 hours. the first set was songs from his solo album, i think in order, and 2nd set wonderful, hopefully, and songs from monster of folk, which i hadn't heard before (i dont own that album).
this band was good and tight, and he was very active on stage, a bit more than a mmj show. i thought the solo songs were excellent and had several interesting extensions and jams. his voice also was excellent, better than the last two tours ive seen.
diesel wrote:saw jim james tuesday night at the 930 club. played 2 sets, about 2 hours. the first set was songs from his solo album, i think in order, and 2nd set wonderful, hopefully, and songs from monster of folk, which i hadn't heard before (i dont own that album).
this band was good and tight, and he was very active on stage, a bit more than a mmj show. i thought the solo songs were excellent and had several interesting extensions and jams. his voice also was excellent, better than the last two tours ive seen.
Good to hear. He's playing at a small venue near me in June that I plan on going to.
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diesel wrote:i'm not saying his voice is a problem, its just in decline. his voice and their sound is always primary compared to their songwriting. i do agree that some of the songs off the last two albums have been sub par, but there are just as many, if not more, really good songs out of the last two. touch me 1&2, smoking from shootin, circuital, wonderful come to mind.
If you cut half the songs out of the middle of EU(Thank You Too-Look At You), you'd have an album that stands up pretty well with It Still Moves and Z. As it is, it's just too long of a stretch with the mellow stuff and Two Halves breaking it up doesn't cut it.
Circuital has a really great 1-2 punch to start, and there's another nice song or 1(Wonderful) but it feels short on really great ideas compared to most of their other albums.
Far as JJ's cornballish weirdness, I think that really elevates Z in certain spots. The wailing at the end of Wordless, Into the Woods, "Laylow let the fetus rock", but the way he enunciates the end of certains lyrics, "I can tell by the way the smile, I'm smilin too" can be a little tiresome. It usually grows on me, b/c I can be a little obnoxious when singing along to it, it's just become kinda predictable.
KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, and Austin City Limits are pleased to tell you that your name was picked from more than 4,000 entries to be in our studio audience for the Jim James taping on Sunday, May 5th. There will be two passes in your name at the acltv.com winner area. These passes are not transferable and cannot be sold. Be sure to read entire email
Congratulations!
I'm in the camp that enjoyed the last 2 albums. I agree that EU could have been cut a little, but songs like Librarian and Aluminum Park are fine by me. I haven't seen them since the EU tour, but those songs sounded great live.
KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, and Austin City Limits are pleased to tell you that your name was picked from more than 4,000 entries to be in our studio audience for the Jim James taping on Sunday, May 5th. There will be two passes in your name at the acltv.com winner area. These passes are not transferable and cannot be sold. Be sure to read entire email
Congratulations!
I'm in the camp that enjoyed the last 2 albums. I agree that EU could have been cut a little, but songs like Librarian and Aluminum Park are fine by me. I haven't seen them since the EU tour, but those songs sounded great live.
this was so fucking fantastic, i ended up buying a cheap ass ticket off of stubhub to see him again the following night. he played pretty much the same fucking set, but i didnt care.
diesel wrote:i'm not saying his voice is a problem, its just in decline. his voice and their sound is always primary compared to their songwriting. i do agree that some of the songs off the last two albums have been sub par, but there are just as many, if not more, really good songs out of the last two. touch me 1&2, smoking from shootin, circuital, wonderful come to mind.
If you cut half the songs out of the middle of EU(Thank You Too-Look At You), you'd have an album that stands up pretty well with It Still Moves and Z. As it is, it's just too long of a stretch with the mellow stuff and Two Halves breaking it up doesn't cut it.
Circuital has a really great 1-2 punch to start, and there's another nice song or 1(Wonderful) but it feels short on really great ideas compared to most of their other albums.
Far as JJ's cornballish weirdness, I think that really elevates Z in certain spots. The wailing at the end of Wordless, Into the Woods, "Laylow let the fetus rock", but the way he enunciates the end of certains lyrics, "I can tell by the way the smile, I'm smilin too" can be a little tiresome. It usually grows on me, b/c I can be a little obnoxious when singing along to it, it's just become kinda predictable.
This is a really insightful post.
For the record I think their stuff up to Z is fucking awesome...but it's definitely in the vein of stuff that I am usually drawn to. Z is good, I like it a lot, different style, and I think the change was implemented very well. What came after is a grab-bag of some stuff done really well and some songs that are almost impossible not to skip.