James: The Night Before/The Morning After

There's beauty in this set, but not a pretty, precious beauty. A heavy, at times difficult-to-stand type of beauty. Sonically, it has a lot in common with Coldplay, and should theoretically appeal to the same audience, but somehow I can see them being turned off by how much more "real" this band is. They pitch their music on the same grandiose level, but back it up with thrilling, satisfying substance that makes for a compelling set that gets better with each listen as it absorbs you and gradually reveals itself. James' singer, Tim Booth, sings with conviction, maybe even romanticism tempered by realism. Like a grounded, worn out Bono.

The Night Before & The Morning After are a set of complimentary mini-albums. They're consistent enough that they can easily be heard together, but distinct enough that you can see why they are kept separate. The former is fittingly mysterious: a tease, grandiose and confident, shielded by the night. The latter is more subtle, detail-oriented. There's one song on it, "Kaleidoscope," which seems to be about one thing, then reveals its true nature and hits you right in the gut. Morning After ends with a lonely, quiet track called "Fear," which lingers a whole on its way out the door. If you opt to listen to The Morning After second, you will be left a-quiver. But it might be even too jarring to go from that to The Night Before's opening number.

The Night Before begins with a charging, rousing number called "It's Hot," creating a lyrical ballet out of cellular division. Like a lot of songs on Night Before, it goes for the high and fast. Of the two, it's easily the more crowd-pleasing. None of the 15 tracks are bad, but the ones you'll find yourself humming along to are all on Night Before: "Crazy," "Ten Below" and "Shine" all have distinctly catchy qualities, yet don't lack for musical sophistication. "Hero" could be in commercials for medical dramas based on its hook, but still has a lot more to recommend it. And the fact that "Porcupine" sounds like a potential hit to me probably explains why I am not actually working in the music industry.

Then there's the most positively addicting song on the whole experiment, "Dr. Hellier." I don't necessarily mean it's the best, only that those "Ahn-an-ahn-ah-na-na-na" chants get under your skin in that way that happens when a song just fucking grabs you. It's delivered with life, exuberance, and yet also desperation and despair. I've always been a big fan of what's called "non-lexical" lyrics, those nonsense words that imply more than actual words could say, or leave the mood open to interpretation. Lyrically, it's pretty fascinating too, using the Fantastic Voyage (the classic sci-fi about shrinking down into someone's body - like that Magic School Bus episode) to tie into other themes explored on the album, particularly in its second half, where a track like "Dr. Hellier" would disrupt the sombre mood.

The other half begins with the staggering stomp of "Got The Shakes." Built on an ominous slide guitar, and Booth's pleading voice, it makes a good transition between the sounds of the two halves. It's not as huge as the other half, not as dreary as the rest of this one. And I mean dreary in the best way. The piano-based "Dust Motes" is one of my favourite of the 15 songs, and it contains lyrics like "There's a vulture at the end of my bed / It's 5 AM, it thinks I'm dead." Then there's "Tell Her I Said So," which is one of the most distressing songs on here, despite its choral chant of "Here's to a long life," because the "her" in question is death, and we have the still relatively young men of James contemplating euthanasia with off-putting vigor.

It's all a very somber affair, laid out with delicate style, and as I said earlier, beauty. The music is an engaging listen, and if it doesn't exactly tell a story then it's certainly got a through-line you can hold on to while the tunes all swirl around you. It just skirts the line of sentimentality and melodrama without ever getting sucked down into it, keeping a distance from its subject matter while still keeping all the details in crystal clarity. And the music is damn well-done.

I'm still not entirely certain how these two halves are meant to go together. If you buy only one you're getting only half an experience, but to listen to it all at once is almost too much to handle. For what it's worth, it's being sold on iTunes as a single package with the tracks interlaced in a way that will give you a different reading of the album than I'm providing. I, however, like the division. I like the idea that even if there's no prescribed way to listen to these pieces of music, it comes in two big chunks that somehow complement each other, fleshing out feelings and sounds conspicuously absent from the other.

The Night Before and The Morning After comprise a great project of music. They take on that huge Colplay-U2-Fray sound and dig into what's supposed to be beneath the commercial sheen, holding out its guts and bones and confronting you rather than comforting you. This is exactly the kind of project I figured this site was designed for.

Buy The Night Before: iTunes Canada // Amazon.ca


Buy The Morning After: iTunes Canada // Amazon.ca

Buy The Morning After The Night Before: iTunes Canada // iTunes USA // Amazon.ca // Amazon.com