Irish warbler James Vincent McMorrow has done some boring beige acoustic stuff in the past but for his new album he's teamed up with Drake's OVO crew on production duties and the first single sounds like some kind of Metronomy/Bon Iver/Carly Rae Jepsen lowkey mini banger. Surprisingly good. Single 'Rising Water' above, album 'We Move' out 2nd September.
The album is fantastic-- if you are a fan of Jessie Ware, you will adore this. Streaming for free here: http://www.npr.org/2016/08/25/490940212/first-listen-james-vincent-mcmorrow-we-move
This is one of my albums of 2016. The production and lyrics are brilliant and he has really reached his A game with this album.
I'm just about to listen to the album, but Rising Water is one of the songs of 2016 without question. He is due massive success. Cavalier is my favourite of his earlier songs, it's astounding. His voice just has this huge haunting cinematic scope.
Listening to this again and it's a great, one of the male albums of the year for me. Has this 'era' been considered a disappointment then? I got the impression it was being heralded as his mainstream breakthrough but it's charted lower than his previous albums. He's in LA at the start of December, would be great if they could get him a spot on Corden or Kimmel. That's usually pretty good exposure for an artist of his size. EDIT: I just tweeted him about it and he said "stay tuned on that one,more news soon", which sounds promising.
I don't think the album's done much at all, really, though I'm not sure if he's actually done any promo for it. It's still a very solid body of work.
I discovered "Rising Water" a while ago and it really is amazing. The album's decent but "Rising Water" is the standout.
Well, again I'm late to the party, but this album is astonishingly good! Actually, properly brilliant! I've listened to it in full twice today and having never heard of James Vincent McMorrow before, I immediately set about hoovering up all the albums and promo's I could find. As it turns out all of his albums are top drawer. What a find! It staggers me that the likes of this and Karen Elson's recent album don't shift major units and break out while the world buys Ed Sheeran's albums repeatedly. We Move is straight away in my top 3 albums of the last year or so. A beautiful and fascinating piece of work.
I had it in my head at the time of release that Britney should be in the video for Rising Water, just dancing around a darkly lit house. An interesting move for her, and exposing him to the masses at the same time. Such a great song.
I see a natural progression with Early In The Morning being the most folk-pop; then on Post Tropical some of the percussion on tracks like Red Dust; Gold and All Points hint at what was to come and We Move is for me his best as the clear, crisp production and R&B tinged flourishes provide something quite earthy and gritty in contrast with that soaring, mesmerizing voice. I'm amazed he's not a big deal and a bit saddened that threads like this too soon sink without trace. On the other hand he can remain our little secret. I wish now I was going to Portmeirion this year - I think he'd be amazing live.
