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When I was growing up, James were cool. James were so cool. Their lyrics eulogised the female orgasm, while necessitating a break from “the beat of the concrete” and the burning of the capitalist detritus of modern life. It was everything a teenager discovering the wonders of sex and socialism wanted to hear. And they were from Manchester, the city where all extremely gorgeous indie bands were from. You can’t buy cool. James’ Brian Eno-produced sound seemed so effortless that even when lead singer Tim Booth shaved his head and grew a pointy beard in 2004, it was simply proof that he could look like a birthday-party magician and still be cool.

I always find it shocking and admirable that ‘90s stalwarts like such as James continue to be so prolific. I hit my peak as a teenager in 2012, when listening to music solely from the ‘80s and ‘90s was a statement and a trend, and it could be said that this trend ultimately harmed the sales and reception of James as a 21st century band. But despite the death of the indie guitar music they pioneered and the NME that propelled it, James is still producing music; in fact, Living in Extraordinary Times is their sixth release since reforming in 2007.

If you asked a James fan what their favourite release was they’d name something like Wah Wah or Laid not the 2016 Girl at the End of the World or 2014’s La Petite Mort. Until I reviewed this album, I couldn’t have named a James song released in the last ten years. If you asked someone on the street what James song was their favourite, they’d probably say “who’s James?” But unlike their contemporaries, James have released album after album even as others’ focus remains on their earlier work. Try as anyone might but the guitar driven indie of Madchester just isn’t relevant in 2018. You won’t hear the new James single ‘Heads’ on BBC Radio 1 but you’ll catch it on nostalgia-alternative Radio 6. We live in a different world than the one James inhabited during their meteoric success, a world they’re clearly trying to come to terms with on this LP.

Yay, 'Heads' blasting out on @BBC6Music @BBC6Breakfast with @shaunwkeaveny right now! #extraordinarytimes #albumoftheday https://t.co/ioLomWxpFN

— James (@wearejames) August 3, 2018

Living in Extraordinary Times opens with heavy guitar and vocal distortion on the track ‘Hank’, a sound more akin to Muse than one I would associate with James. The music is safe, as if following a step by step WikiHow article on making an ominous soundscape. I’ll be honest, I hate ‘Hank’ as an opener. Its preachy and tone deaf lyrics make for cringey listening. “Our weapon is a stand up / A jester prancing like a fool / In jest digest the monster / This president’s a dangerous tool.” Wow, if only someone had thought of that before. It makes you want to scream back that we get it” Everyone gets it. Everyone knows America is truly and utterly fucked. Except of course, the people who believe that current America has indeed been made great again and James aren’t going to convince them with lyrics like “Democracy sells easy / NRA high fives / Orlando Sandy Hook Columbine”. The sensitive subject matter aside,  no one should ever, under any circumstance rhyme “Columbine” with “high fives.”

As much as I’d like to write off the whole of Living in Extraordinary Times for these offences, James redeem themselves by exploring old forms anew. ‘Coming Home Part 2’ is a spiritual successor and answer to their 1989 hit ‘Come Home’. Opening with the band’s sparkling,  classic sound, lyrics about Facetime and electronic riffs situate the James of Madchester in 2018. The song’s structure evokes ‘Waterfall’ in a musical sense, while narrating the band members’ maturation from love struck boys to fathers, more focused on the life they have brought into the world. Where Booth once sang to his lover “and I don’t believe you’re all I’ll ever need / And I need to feel that you’re not holding me” while screaming for them to come home, “Coming Home Part 2” sees Booth sing about the pressures of touring on his relationship with his child, the “Love when I’m gone / Love to endure”, while promising over-and-over that he’s on his way home to see them.

Throughout Living in Extraordinary Times, there is evidence of the band who once effortlessly captured the young adult malaise I related to. Even on the dogmatic efforts of ‘Hank’ and ‘Heads’’, there are glimmers of lyrical subtlety amid the sermon, “We exist in multiple denials […] Now every possibility exists in everybody’s mind”. These moments prove best when James deviate from the ‘message’ of their album, meaning much of the best work from Living in Extraordinary Times is present on discarded demos and bonus tracks (check out ‘Backwards Glances’). The album, when concerned with the micro rather than macro relationships of the world, succeeds in creating touching and affective music, reminiscent of  going on long haul trips in an existential stupor.

My reaction to Living in Extraordinary Times says more about me, and the current music industry, than James themselves. I, a twenty-two year old female, am not the market for this album. I can enjoy it, but I will not feel the same connection with the James approaching sixty years of age as I did with the band who sang about life aged thirty. Living in Extraordinary Times is a gift for the James superfans, those who grew up alongside them and got married and became parents at a similar time. James is writing for Generation X. Listening to ‘Hank’ and ‘Heads’ reminds me of being lectured at awkward family dinners by uncles who speak as if they know better. Perhaps that’s why millennials will be so adverse to the album’s didactic tone, and Gen Z won’t be able to recognise it. What I do know is that James don’t care. They’re aware they can’t become their younger selves from 1990 or 1999. so they’re moving on. They don’t want to win over Jacob Sartorius’ fanbase. They know their ground and who they are singing to. With this self-aware release, James prove they understand their core fanbase – and end up with what is at best a standard, uninventive BBC Radio 2/Radio 6-friendly album.