Search - James :: Pleased to Meet You

A musical masterpiece

mal michael | australia | 07/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"if you enjoy music from real musicians than please to meet you by james is a breath of fresh air from all the pop puppetry which saturates our radios and shelves at music stores. a must have for people who appreciate true musicians. the album is a complete contrast of songs from start to finish,soft ballads to light rock.. this cd is a knockout.. 5 stars"

It's JAMES!

Brian Smyers | Frederick, MD USA | 10/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD turned out to be the last studio effort by Tim Booth w/ the rest of the band named James. ...This means for any James fan out there, this album and the subsequent live album "Getting Away With It...Live" are musts to own, for they mark an end of an era of 20 years of Tim Booth as lead singer.Musically, this album is very good. The bass play in "English Beefcake" is very Cure-esque with long bass notes driving the rhythm. "Junkie" reminds me of The Church with it's sublime feel and social commentary.The title track "Pleased to Meet You" starts slow and hypnotizing, but don't be fooled! Your speakers better be able to handle the guitar at 3:40 into the song! It'll wake you up on a long drive, that's for sure."Senorita" is an upbeat song with a strong chorus and verse that explores the lines of love/lust/worship. "I'm addicted to you/I hope we're going to pull through/I'm addicted to you/You're my love, my Senorita/I'm addicted to you/you're the god that makes me stronger/"On "Falling Down" and "Fine", one hears James experimenting w/ basic dance rhythms that don't dominate, but rather enhance the "mellow" of the album.All in all this is a solid album. Nothing to get worked up about in a negative sense, except that it almost makes one downright sorrowful for passing of the Booth era of James."

Not Their Best, But Still Quite Good (Swan Song, perhaps?)

Jon M. De Benedictis | Fairfield, CT United States | 06/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sadly, this may be the last studio effort from the great English band JAMES. If it isn't, then it is most likely the last to feature their charismatic frontman, Tim Booth. Following the release of this album. Booth announced he was leaving the band in December of 2001.
JAMES seemed to really hit their stride with a string of singles in the early to mid 1990's. Though they could never maintain the momentum, they continued making excellent music (check out their amazing 1999 release, "Millionaires.")
PLEASED TO MEET YOU finds the band as experimental and groundbreaking as ever. This album has a true sense of the band looking forward, to the future, to, ironically, the bands future.
The lead off track, SPACE, is text book JAMES: spooky, bizarre, at times hilarious, and downright catchy. The lines "you've gotta get over yourself" will reverberate in your head for quite some time.
Another real stand out is the song GETTING AWAY WITH IT, a dark, twisted anthem with more catchy tunes and cutting lyrics.
THE SHINING and GIVE IT AWAY are two of my other favorites.
So, why then, am I only giving this 4 stars and not 5 if its so damn good? Well, while I admire the sonics and the new direction the band seemed to be going in with disc, the songs, with the exception of the four I have mentioned, simply aren't as consistently strong as the ones on LAID, WHIPLASH, or MILLIONAIRES are.
Still, this disc is very good and proves, yet again, why JAMES are/were one of the most talented and underappreciated bands out there."