James "Chain Mail" Review

JAMES: Chain Mail (Blanco Y Negro)

The rustics who brought a racy edge and tumbling verve to their curious world on ‘Hymn To A Village’ don’t do much to suggest the excitement and fascination of that record here. This is cold, turgid and morose, cloistered in defiantly English whimsy - from the clip-clop primary school coconut shell sound effects that open to the clangorous Pete Hammill chorus that rises and groans throughout. I’m not sure what it’s about - though I’d take a guess at strained misery being spiced by transcendent longing - but, more pertinently, I don’t get the feeling I’d care anyway.