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”.
Watch the video for track Is This Love, below:
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.
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
Pre-order the album here
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.
See the dates below for the 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
