JAMES have announced full details of their new album to be released on 12 April via Virgin Music, available to pre-order here. YUMMY is the band’s 18th studio album and was produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Jon Hopkins, Imogen Heap, Regina Spektor) and mixed by Cenzo Townsend (Courteeners, The Specials, Everything Everything).
The first single from the record, IS THIS LOVE, is the album’s string-swept opener, blending cutting edge synthetics with quintessential James anthemics, as complex a dissection of love in all its forms as singer Tim Booth pores over the pain, heat, battle, distance, fear, release and endurance of this emotion, in pursuit of its point and purpose. “Love is a bomb,” says Tim, “a Tsunami that rolls over our life as we cling to the wreckage of our peace of mind”.
Listen to Is This Love here
The artwork for the single and the album has been directed and designed by Studio Fury who have a rich history of creating iconic album covers, including art directing the campaign for the latest Rolling Stones album, Hackney Diamonds. Full details for the album, including track list, formats and artwork, will follow in the coming weeks.
YUMMY TRACK LIST
- Is This Love
- Life Is A Fucking Miracle
- Better With You
- Stay
- Shadow Of A Giant
- Way Over Your Head
- Mobile God
- Our World
- Rogue
- Hey
- Butterfly
- Folks
The band have also announced a 2CD Deluxe Edition of Yummy, the second CD of which is called Pudding and comprises of demos produced by the four songwriters in the band.
Tim Booth says of the Deluxe edition Pudding CD: “You are listening to demos produced by the four songwriters in James. Most of them contain the original music and vocals created in the initial jams – which is why many of them don’t have lyrics. These are the tracks that didn’t make it to the next stage, where we would take them to all the band members to contribute and I would work on the lyrics before recording the final versions with a producer. We always make more demos than we use before recording an album, and we usually jam over 100 songs before choosing which to develop. It’s our way of keeping our quality high. These may be sketches of songs, but we could hear their potential, how they would develop with further work. James have always loved making B-sides as a way to hone creativity. Maybe view these as the B-sides for the album Yummy.”
PUDDING TRACK LIST
- Anyone But You
- Close Enough
- Mine To Lose
- Activist Song
- Won’t Be The Same
- Tell Me Something
- Poolewe Day 1 Jam 4
- Arpen Charp
- Deliver The Dawn
- Something Of A Pleasure
- Walk Tall
- 50s Out Takes
Yummy will be available on the following formats: CD | 2CD Deluxe | Vinyl | Colour Vinyl (Marbled Red) Retail Exclusive | Colour Vinyl (Marbled Orange) D2C Exclusive
James head out on their biggest ever UK tour in June, including the new Co-op Live Arena in Manchester and culminating at The O2 in London, the first time the band have played the 20,000 capacity venue.
2024 ARENA TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS RAZORLIGHT
JUNE
Mon 03 ABERDEEN P&J Live
Wed 05 NEWCASTLE Utilita Arena
Fri 07 GLASGOW OVO Hydro
Sat 08 LEEDS First Direct Arena
Tue 11 CARDIFF Utilita Arena
Wed 12 BIRMINGHAM Utilita Arena
Fri 14 MANCHESTER Co-op Live
Sat 15 LONDON O2 Arena
Tim, Jim and Saul from James will also perform with Joe Duddell and an orchestra at Music Feeds Live: A Concert to Fight Food Poverty in aid of The Trussell Trust at Manchester O2 Apollo on 27 February. They join other artists including Slow Readers Club, Lanterns on the Lake, The Farm and British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage with his band LYR. Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher will host the event alongside BBC 6 Music presenter Chris Hawkins, with Joe Duddell collaborating with the guests throughout the night.
Tickets and information here
In celebration of the band’s 40th Anniversary last year, James were honoured at the Ivor Novello Awards, receiving the PRS Music Icon Award, kickstarting a full year of celebration. This prestigious award was followed by the release of their orchestral double album Be Opened By The Wonderful, which reached #3 in the UK album charts in June and received the best reviews of their career. Throughout the summer the band then headlined multiple UK and European festivals, culminating in two unique shows backed by full orchestra and choir at The Odeon Of Herodes Atticus in Athens, and a Special Guest headline slot at Latitude Festival.