So many sweet and bittersweet memories tied up with this album.
I've already mentioned the gig on my 28th birthday where James premiered several Laid songs before the album came out. Sometimes, Laid and Low, Low, Low were all included in the setlist that day: I remember Tim Booth waving his loudhailer around as he launched into the lines "I'm a member of an ape-like race at the asshole end of the 20th century", and knowing that they were back on form.
When the album came out a couple of months later I recorded it onto tape and took it with us when M and I had our first weekend away together in Whitby. Over those two and a half days we played it several times through. M told me later that she had been slightly freaked out by some of the lyrics (to Five-O, I think), though in the years to come she would frequently quote other songs back at me: "Say something, say something, anything"; and sing the relevant part of Out to Get You into my answering machine. And then after six years the answer to those questions in Five-O turned out to be No.
I've always thought of this as the one album where James realised on record what their live shows promised they were capable of. I know they tried to recreate the qualities of Laid, by hiring Brian Eno to produce again, but despite their claims otherwise, I don't think they ever pulled it off again.
Listening to it again now, I'm surprised that over half of the thirteen songs are downbeat, slow and quiet, free of either bounce or jangle. I don't know what else to say about that; it just struck me, that's all. In fact, I didn't enjoy the album this time quite as much as I was expecting to. It's still going into the Top 50, though, both for the personal memories and for where it sits in the career of a band that, on their day, bought something uncannily thrilling to pop music.
Oh, yes — since we last had James on here, they've reformed. I saw them at Brixton Academy back in April, and was glad to be there — but by their standards they were ordinary rather than extraordinary.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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