James & The Giants
James & The Giants
Kill Rock Stars Nashville
30 June 2023
Links between visual and musical creatives can extend beyond a record’s packaging. In the case of James & The Giants, a new release from James Jackson Toth, he was glad to know artist Jake Blanchard in two ways. Toth made some demos for this project as digital downloads on Bandcamp, but Blanchard thought they deserved a physical release, even just as CDRs. Toth agreed, and the aforesaid discs are now available under the Toth’s Law series. Secondly, it’s Blanchard at the helm for this album’s fine visuals, about which he told FRUK: “I took inspiration from the song lyrics and the title of the album to create the cover. There’s lots of little references to the lyrics running through the artwork, though some are easier to spot than others.”
A quick recap reminds us that Toth has recorded under the name Wooden Wand, scuffing around wonderfully with freak-folk and psych-rock styles. He’s a native New Yorker, now resident in Lexington, Kentucky. James & The Giants might just be his most congenial work yet, veering damn close to all-round family entertainment. Toth offers sober musings for late-night booze hounds, with a wry literacy that echoes the late David McComb (The Triffids) and David Berman (Silver Jews).
Intriguingly, though, it’s The Ramones who inspire the opening cut I Wanna Go Down to the Basement. A riposte to the band’s goofy rocker I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement, Toth finds a slacker country vibe with quite a hymnal quality. Less about horror movies and jump scares than The Ramones implied; Toth sounds more like he’s wielding an old hoe and the Bible. Then on Hall of Mirrors, he seems resigned to his lot, a man coming to terms with his own reflection. Female backing vocals sigh in sympathy with Toth over a brooding barroom piano. “Oh, the night is a hall of mirrors,” he cries, as if the night could be anything else when sung with such lovelorn faith.
The pleading Don’t Let Love Make a Liar Out of You brings a neat mix of English colliery brass and melodic Nashville balladry. “Love is not a rabbit and life’s no black top hat,” Toth suggests, quite reasonably. He’s a highly quotable and metaphorical lyricist, though things get a tad too obscure during the leaden On the Vine. Reworked here from Toth’s teens, Dead of Night faces down inner demons and addictions while doing its bit for gothic Americana. Toth’s voice could charm wild beasts at times, but here he sounds ready to unleash them.
An acoustic puppy love song, All Time Girl, is presented so simply you might suspect it’s a send-up or wind-up. Dilated Eyes is a real weeper, a tender waltz with sumptuous hooks, just as the murmurous lament Islander also reflects on leaving home. Friends Forever accepts love’s fleeting nature to a chorus of subdued trumpets before Bless This Mess bids us farewell with a tumbling singalong chorus. It leaves mental visions of Toth in a ragged coat, busking under a streetlamp with an angelic choir in tow.
Melancholy songs are so often the most emotionally honest. On this outstanding set, Toth brings to light his own humility and frailty, while asking us to take stock of our own.
Pre-Order/Pre-Save James & the Giants: https://pocp.co/james-and-the-giants.OYD