Listened: May 1
I bought Wah Wah very early on in my CD-buying career. I don’t remember if I owned Laid yet or not. I think Wah Wah had just come out so I wanted to own James’ “newest one”. But little did I know that this album is just experiments the band did with Brian Eno whilst recording Laid. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, it was a good introduction to “classic Eno”-type explorations. I remember being 15 years old, listening to this album on a family vacation to Maui, alone in the bedroom of the condo with island breezes flowing around me as I tried to make sense of what I was hearing. It’s amazing now how much Jam J & the bass of Frequency Dip sound like Achtung Baby-period U2. It’s clear that Eno was experimenting with a certain sound during the early 90s, no matter who he was working with.
Not that there aren’t some pretty traditional Jamesian songs here amongst the noodling – Pressure’s On and Tomorrow are especially good. At Coachella 2012 I saw James live for the first time, in unusual-for-Coachella rainy weather. When they busted out Tomorrow, it seemed like the clouds parted. I love that about them.
Emily's Albums A to Z 
I just tried to post a reply and I don’t know if it got through. Anyway, “Tomorrow” is my all-time favorite James song.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I’ve posted a bunch of mixes on my blog and one of them is based on songs I’ve been introduced to or reminded of through your blog. You can check it out on my blog. Just wanted you to know.
Awesome, I’ll check it out!
[…] (an idea expressed by the album cover as well as the lyrics). It’s pretty much a hybrid of Wah-Wah and Laid musically. Lots of mellow meditative experiments, but also catchy songs like She’s a […]