JACK JAMES

Letters of Last Resort

(Self-released)

THE latest of Glasgow singersongwriter Jack James’s beautifully-realised collections builds on the trajectory of last year’s Stopping Distance by expanding the instrumentation with much deployment of electric guitar and some very effective keyboards, particularly acoustic piano. The conceit in the title this year is a reference to the missive each PM writes to the commander of the nuclear submarine fleet with instructions lest Trident out-survives its home port, a particularly relevant metaphor on Clydeside.

James deploys less of that brand of word-play in his lyrics, although Phone Number here has some of the quirky lyrical originality that we all love in Nick Lowe. Generally, however, the Jack James influence +set runs from Neil Young, by way of Kurt Wagner’s Lambchop (quite blatantly at times) and Bonnie “Prince” Billy to Arab Strap, without the charming vulgarity. The biggest surprise is the chord progression in After Hours, which sounds so like something Johnny Marr might have come up with on an early Smiths album it surely has to be a steal.

Surprise, So Strange is probably the most fully-realised original composition on the disc, but both Taking A Dive and Your Side Is String suggest a rockier direction that James might be wise to pursue further.