JAMES : PLAY LOUDER REVIEW

'Pleased To Meet You', James' eleventh-but-who's-counting album, sounds like A-Ha's comeback should have, rather than the miserable trough of non-cathartic mopery that it was. It's more low-key than 'Millionaires', less brash. Its highs are safer and its lows more thoughtful and safe. This doesn't mean it's not rather good. Cos it is.

It's clearly touched by the hand of Brian Eno, who tries (and succeeds with) all sorts of jumpy, trippy beats. The ambience is laid on with a shiny, impassive trowel on occasion, and lush as it is you start to think about your laundry in the midst of the swirl. This isn't a worry though with 'Falling Down', coming on as it does with a "come on!" bassline like the Jacksons' universe-busting 'Can You Feel It?', wicked falsetto and a general crowd-prodding bounce. And moderately rude lyrics. Opener 'Space' is whoppingly confident, doing that James trick of slyly building up towards a last two minutes of enormity, while 'English Beefcake' has an elegantly stompy stride, a new vocal melody peeping out at the end like a bird from an egg.

It's top-heavy, the first few tracks really demanding attention (although one of the best is the last, 'Alaskan Pipeline', which is softly pensive and gorgeous). It feels strange that the lead single is the penultimate album track, when it's more often the first or second that gets chosen. They have a buoyancy that U2 will never really attain, never sounding too self-consciously modern, sounding very much of the last decade but escaping sounding dated. A part of everyone likes James. Yes you do. Admit it.