James - Living In Extraordinary Times (BMG)

Manchester band James continue to impress on this their 15th album. It's not an easy listen and takes a bit of getting into. When you do get there it could be one of their best albums to date.

There is a Yorkshire connection in there too - the album started life during jam sessions at Sheffield's Yellow Arch Studios.

There are lots of influences in there and a lot of tracks do not sound like James. The opening track Hank even sounds like Underworld towards the end. It is on the second track Coming Home where things sound more like James on an uplifting track, think Sit Down or Come Home and you will be almost there.

Many Faces is a song in two halves, it starts off all jaunty before the track evolves into something completely different.

The band have always had a knack of writing a good melody and How Hard The Day is just that, a simple ballad that you can imagine the fans singing back to them at gigs.

Better Than That is typical James, you can imagine lead singer Tim Booth doing one of his dances on stage to this rhythmic song.

As I said, initially it is not an easy listen and it may divide James fans but if you persist you will be rewarded.

I rate the album 4 out of 5.