I’ve not actually abandoned the ‘dot-to-dot approach’, I’m just approaching it from different angles and multiple ‘streams’.

Despite listening to Ritual and deciding that Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures was the next album to listen to, I still intend to follow to Oasis-Stone Roses-Doves-Smiths route as well (having spent so much time on it thus far!).

Once again this hasn’t led me too far away from Manchester. Whilst reading several articles about The Smiths for The Queen Is Dead – I picked up that James supported them and were described as the New Smiths. I’d heard ‘Sit Down’ before and liked it, but I thought the best way to hear the comparison between Smiths and James was to get an album that was brought around the same time.

I found this in one of Play.com’s multiple sales, picking it up for a fiver out of sheer curiosity.

This was a very difficult album to get into, and to make it even more difficult it’s not that great. In fact this is the worst album on this Music Project so far. I’ve done a bit of Googling on the album and there’s a lot of love for Stutter. I’m just not feeling it.

I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. The album has a number of ‘Folk’ elements that I just didn’t get. I’m not too keen on Folky bands, I struggled to get into Mumford & Son’s (only really liking the stuff that got radio play). If you were to think ‘Sit Down’ and Smiths you certainly don’t come up with Stutter.

There are a number of songs where the vocals are very Morrisey-esque. Just Hip has a bass line and vocals that could come straight off The Queen Is Dead or Meat is Murder, but when the ‘plinkly’ upbeat guitar kicks in – the similarities end.

James sound more upbeat that Smith’s the lyrics all sound very jolly and you can imagine them being sung with a smile on Tim Booth’s face.

Although the album is probably the most upbeat album I’ve heard on the project so far, it sounds very ‘cluttered’. There is only one simple song -there are cow bells, steel drums, triangles, the lot. But rather than planning it – they just seem to have gone “I want one of those, one of those, 15 of those we’ve not had one of those yet ” it’s a chaotic album. I do have to wonder how they ever managed to play these songs live.

It’s not just the instruments some of the vocals are just screaming and mad gibberish. I actually felt embarrassed listening to Summer Songs. The first three minutes are quite enjoyable and then after a key change it descends into yelping and squealing. I struggle to let it finish. (In fact I’ve just skipped it again!)

This album has grown on me, I started thinking “what the hell is this -it’s a bit crap” and a lot of listens later it’s still not the best album ever but there are some good songs.

Why So Close, Johnny Yen, So Many Ways and Really Hard are some songs I’ll listen to again, but the rest are simply average.

Over Christmas, my Dad and I finally went through his CD collection and I found two James albums in there – Millionaires and Greatest Hits. I’m going to have a listen to them and see if James got any better. I’m struggling to understand how they made so many albums if they sounded so average.

This album defines the term Grower. I couldn’t stand it at first and wondered how the hell they even got a second record after this. But after a few listens you kind of ‘get it’.

The best way to describe this album is that I wouldn’t turn it off it came up on random on my MP3 player, but I don’t think I’d choose to put it on.

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