Single Review - James "We're Going To Miss You"

JAMES "We're Going To Miss You"
MERCURY CD JIMDD 24
Chart Position # 48

There's more to James than "Sit Down" & flowery t-shirts you know.

By 1998, James had released their "Best Of" and were on a second career high after 5 years of misfortune. However, beneath the surface there were still some in-house creative disagreements over their next move, and the following ironically titled album "Millionaires" was less experimental than before. Although generally well received by critics, it was surprisingly not well received by fans or the general record buying public (nearly always the case once a greatest hits is released - everything afterwards gets ignored). Which is a shame as there's some good stuff on here, the sublime "Just Like Fred Astaire" which we'll get to in due course and this: "We're Going To Miss You".

The album version is quite a dark track and not obvious single material, with a meandering intro. However, the band went back to the studio to rerecorded the track to making it more punchy, with the ever reliable Dave Bascombe on mixing duties for radio friendliness. It's got a superb rousing chorus (I love it when it sounds like all the band is singing together) and brooding verse lyrics which apparently are a spell against anybody wanting to do harm to Mr Booth:

"This is not, this is not, a song / This is a shield, this is a charm, with your name on / By this beat, by this verse, I'm protected / From your heat, and your curse, is reflected / If anybody hurts me"

Read into that what you will. Of course, it bombed, being released in December 1999, when nobody in their right mind would release a track, let alone the third song off an album. And James had only one more (excellent) single and album left in them before Tim Booth left, but I feel that they're a pretty much unappreciated & forgotten band these days and this needs to be rectified, starting here.