STUTTER ALBUM REVIEWS

NME 26/7/86 by Dave Haslam

There's nothing hestitant about the magnificent 'Stutter'. It's a cleanly delivered debut LP, gleaming with creativity and confidence.  'Stutter' scampers and grins and it's got plenty to say. It's the hardest jingle-jangle record for years.

On the one hand James have got that kind of adventurous spirit you might best associate with young children who run around the park with dirty knees and ask the grown-ups lots of awkward questions. On the other hand, there's a sophisticated thoughtfulness about them.  There are 11 tracks here; there's complex drum sounds, unorthodox musical structures and intriguing parable-like lyrics. But the songs are breathtakingly simple.

Tim Booth sings and sometimes shouts and occassionally whistles.  He has some great lines. I think having to sing the phrase "beam me up Scotty" in 'Black Hole' probably takes the biscuit.

'Skullduggery' starts the LP as it has started so many live James shows. And other songs are two or three years old as well including 'Johnny Yen'; a tale telling male bravado and the morbid fascination of a crowd watching while others destroy themselves. Living dangerously is no ideal for living,

Lenny Kaye as producer has finally nurtured that mixture of a rock n roll hardness in the drumming and a lightness of touch in the musicanship which creates those typical James songs. The ones, I mean, which launch into disruptive tumbling rhythms. Bursting out all over. Say 'Just Hip'.

Their music isn't as easy to categorise as it is to enjoy. There's plenty of those tumbles. And 'Scarecrow' is in odd 6/8 time which makes it shimmy like a waltz. 'Why So Close', meanwhile, is a singalong acoustic version of a previously released track. 'Why So Close' is a kind of protest song, questioning the wisdom of creating, in nuclear power, a force that humankind cannot control. And 'Summer Song' beats upon those who poison our earth in the name of progress (for pragmatism). We seem to have taken a few wrong paths as a result of decisions "built on lies and lies and lies ......."

Maybe stuttering is a sign of healthy uncertainty; conviction is beginning to grow out of confusion. The lyrics ask questions about priorities and despatch sound advice: "If you keep your wits about you / And search with an open heart / You'll be sure to find your answers" (So Many Ways). The lyrics have travelled a long way from social realism.  The songs spark on emotional sparks instead.

So none of the tracks are tracts; they are celebrations. There is such a tremendous livewire energy in the music that once again, I'm left to rationalise a love which is instinctive, no less.

Fighting free of the disciplines and distractions of the usual kind of pop song which says the usual kind of things, is what makes James so brilliantly special. And it's probably no coincidence that a lot of the songs yearn for ways to escape constrictions. It's a grand idea throwing off the chains, but they are not very specific about this. Still, that's forgivable. There are so many ways you can communicate, it's just a matter of finding the right words.

 SOUNDS 1986 by Eleanor Levy 4/5

First things first, James are an acquired taste. For most, this starts with seeing the four-piece live and witnessing the way the guitar, drums and bass mingle in a wild aural haze one minute or mellow to the simplest of sounds the next - all punctuated with singer Timothy Booth's Jekyl and Hyde act upfront. Sweet grinning little boy one minute, shivering, shimmying maniac the next.

Their first two singles since signing to a major at the end of last year were - wisely - from the softer, more accessible end of the James musical spectrum.  The latest "So Many Ways" (proudly resting on side two here), has the traditional starkness of sound James have always delivered, but within the framework of the traditional 'song'.

Which is something James don't always deliver.  Live that's enthralling and captivating, but this album shows just how difficult it is to transfer that spontaneity to vinyl.

Without the sight of Tim's St Vitus boogie, the more fast and furious James tracks, like "Billy's Shirts" or the souped-up nursery rhyme tones of "Skullduggery", lose their way and meaning.

Stick to the likes of the lilting "Why So Close" with an almost World War II sing-song feel to it, or the mounting drama of "Johnny Yen" and you have a band with engaging, human songs performed with heart, where others would use a Fairlight to plug the gaps.  James leave the gaps - and it gives you room to breath and just enjoy the sound.

A mixed bag indeed. It's not the album it should have been - but it's close.

Q Magazine 6.91 by Phil Sutcliffe 6.91

If Skullduggery, the opening song from James's debut, Stutter, hints at persons bearing rainbow-hued Mohicans jigging round the maypole, the second tune, Scarecrow, has more to do with James's fondness for Patti Smith - her guitarist, famed New York scene-maker Lenny Kaye, was the producer.

There's a sense of echoey space around busy little instruments, but it becomes wearing at album length, as the production emphasises detail only to reveal guitarist Larry Gott and bassist Jim Glennie in pedestrian form.

However, Withdrawn and Black Hole show the sort of gallows humour which must have attracted Morrissey's attention ( James were support band on The Smiths' 1985 tour). Johnny Yen confirms James's substance. The story concerns poor old Johnny who has set himself on fire again and his attention-seeking exhibitionism, despair and violence (self-inflicted or otherwise). It rises to the occasion through Booth's sheer intensity.