The Morning After | The Night Before

'More than just in name, The Night Before and The Morning After are two distinctly different comeback albums (mini-albums, as they're being sold). Perhaps the band wanted to create a separation as means of distinction between themes, but the concrete results are a revelation of which James remains after the long hiatus. While fans of the cathartic, loosely experimental Wah Wah will be disappointed, so will those who favored Whiplash and its strong pop and glamour flavors. Both of these new mini-albums reach backwards to the pre-Laid James, the very fresh, bright, even naïve band that used a flower not only as a symbol but a prevailing ethos. The Night Before strikes a rebellious, club-minded chord. It's filled with tracks that are largely synth-driven and built around a strong sense of tempo. On the flip side, The Morning After waxes reflective, finding lead singer Booth doting pensive on ashtray evidence of what might have been. This has always been a strong suit for James, a two-sided Pollyanna who could cut loose and wonder why there was a mess later on. Time has done nothing to the lead lark's ability to warble, nor has it curbed his charming naiveté. While other Manchester contemporaries were filled with equally optimistic bravado, Booth is neither as ironic as Morrissey nor Herculean as Ian Brown. When he calls out about flower power, no one within earshot could sift around for any double meanings. My gut says that The Morning After is the better of two strong mini-albums. There is an uncertainty in the other, not in the band's ability to shake the back of the room, but in their sense of that room. In stretches, its execution feels dated. There are would-be classics here ("Tell Her I Said So" and "Dust Motes" in particular), the sort of subtle hip-shaking, shoe-gazing songs of self-reflection that never quite feel canned. The old warmth is there, embraced in the voices, in the recordings, the sounds that seem to wrap around the listener. Over these fifteen total songs, the band has bridged that gap of time that buries so many others.' - Erick Mertz / Kevchino.com