Last April, we did a little news piece on up and coming Midlands Rock band, The James Warner Prophecies and what do you know, while drinking a lovely glass of red in the office this evening, we come across the band once again, so what’s an online rock magazine going to do…Well, were going to write about them again, or more importantly we are going to write a little bit about their brand new album set for a March 12th release called ”Things Change” which the band has very kindly let us listen to.
The best thing with this album, or indeed the whole band is that they didn’t just produce a 12 track with 11 heavy songs and 1 mellow one, but rather a nice solid all round mix of the two so it’s not like the mellow song was an after thought, as is usually the perceived case for a lot of other bands. Currently we are listening to ”Define” for about the 8th time now, and when you hear it and see it (video below) you’ll know why. It incorporates everything we adore about rock, like the exhilarating back beats and impressively timed guitar tinges, and the vocals, wow…The vocals are are just amazing. It ranges from a soft, subtle unassuming tone and then it just goes all out. Lead vocalist Joe, clearly has no problems at all with the lows and highs often expected and demanded out of a good lead but let’s not just give all the praise to Joe though, the whole band are clearly talented and know their weapons very well, and use them just as well too.
The ”plucky” nature of the song Av A Bite shows the bands clear driven aspiration for diversity as it incorporates so many different subtle styles that the band have fused together really well creating a great high energy sound while remaining unique in their execution. A similar thing can be said about The Itch. On the face of it, it doesn’t sound much like a rock song, until it gets going and especially at the end. The song also contains a lot of prominent piano, which works incredibly well with the song even though it’s not used in the ”conventional” rock way, a la Evanescense, Cradle Of Filth, Nightwish etc, which is a nice refreshing change to be honest.
Different again, we have Running Out which, off the start sounds a little like it could be a Blues song with it’s soft, yet edgy vocals and svelte base line. All it needed for that first 30 seconds or so was a bit of harmonica and it was set. Then of course the song kicks in, in all it’s James Warner goodness. It’s unpredictable. It’s edgy, unique and definitely enjoyable. A first time James Warner live show attendee will hear the start of a song that, on the face of it doesn’t sound all that ”rocky”, but then it kicks in, and you feel, well almost delighted by it. You were expecting heavy rock from the get go, maybe mildly disappointed you didn’t get it, but only for a few seconds until it beefs up. Then you find yourself looking forward to the more mellow bits because they’re just as good as the hard hitting rock bits. It really is a fantastic mix.
Listening to Define for the 9th time….
The other songs on the album are My Left Hand Waves Goodbye, Justified, James Warners Last Dying Words, Holes, Holding On, Subterranean & Things Change. All these songs stand up to the above comments but that’s not to say that they’re all the same, because quite frankly, they are not. They all have their own little quirks and spores of joy hidden inside them and instead of us writing about every single song and analyzing in detail the riffs, beats and bass, I think we’ll let you go on your own path to discover your newest edition to your portable music player of choice.
We would have no problem at all parting with our money to get our hands on this album. None at all. I have now listened to ”Define” 10 times and it still isn’t getting old. It’s simply a masterpiece! So, in summary, THE JAMES WARNER PROPHECIES are simply fantastic. They can produce great songs, with great lyrics and sounds and each sound is different, in it’s own way, but I think they’ve been very careful not to alienate listeners into thinking they don’t know what direction they’re heading in. Even though the songs are different, they all work together very well and I think the band have managed to ‘bond’ the songs together for the album in a really solid way.
The band are touring all the way up until July with appearances on BBC Radio Derby on Jan 27th and including nominations for the Pure Rawk Awards.
You can also buy the bands music online which i strongly urge you to do so.The new album is £10 (March 12th release) and you can buy some of their earlier songs for as little as 49p each.
Also if you love the band just as much as we do, you can show your love by purchasing a T-Shirt and some badges!
If you don’t, Joe will use that there knife and fork for something the opposite of warm and fuzzy.
DEFINE OFFICIAL VIDEO
RUNNING OUT LIVE
JWP OFFICIAL WEBSITE // OFFICIAL FACEBOOK
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