Jamie T - Kings & Queens

 

CD Album

1.
    

368

2.
    

Hocus Pocus

3.
    

Sticks 'n' Stones

4.
    

The Man's Machine

5.
    

Emily's Heart

6.
    

Chaka Demus

7.
    

Spider's Web

8.
    

Castro Dies

9.
    

Earth, Wind & Fire

10.
    

British Intelligence

11.
    

Jilly Armeen

 

CD Album + Bonus DVD (2)

Component 1

.
    

As CD Above

Bonus DVD

1.
    

Operation (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

2.
    

368 (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

3.
    

If You Got The Money (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

4.
    

Back In The Game (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

5.
    

Earth, Wind & Fire (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

6.
    

The Dance Of The Young Professionals (Live At The Electric Ballroom)

7.
    

Sticks ‘n’ Stones (Live At The Electric Ballroom)



WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

“A 43-minute, all-killer, no-filler set of stunners” Observer Music Monthly - 5 stars
“A bloody minded triumph” Q - 4 stars
“An unashamedly fun album” MOJO – 4 stars
the “bard or ASBO* Britain” UNCUT – 4 stars
“One of Britain’s best young artists’ Guardian

Some two and a half years after the release of his Mercury nominated debut album ‘Panic Prevention’, Jamie Treays is set to cement his status as one of the UK’s most genuine and exciting young musicians with the release of his new album ‘Kings & Queens’ on September 7th 2009.

But why the long-hiatus? Burnt out after a hectic period of touring following the success of his debut release (over 200,000 UK sales, tours in Europe, the US and Australia), Jamie decided to take his time with his follow-up and explore different musical avenues. Originally starting down a folk direction, he quickly scrapped this because, to quote the man himself: “it was just a bit boring.” What followed was an intense eighteen month period for Jamie and his production partner Ben Bones, where the sole mission was to create music that would make people excited. It was a tough period for Jamie, who put himself on creative lock-down, with the only music surfacing being the blistering Sub-Pop inspired punk-rap of ‘Fire Fire, which came with a home-made video that felt like a late-80s Powell-Peralta skate movie. It was a track that exploded all over the blogs but left his fans split down the middle about what direction the Wimbledon born lad was taking.

They shouldn’t have been concerned. By alternating between his garden shed studio and a higher-spec East London recording space, plus the decision to not release any music until he was 100% satisfied, Jamie has completely avoided the second album trap. In his words, ‘I didn’t do my second album. I did my third one instead.’

‘Kings & Queens’ features eleven songs. And what songs they are. Short, sharp and punchy, mainly. Slow, dreamy and haunted, occasionally. Still pungent with the whiff of London streets and messy times, but less celebratory, more troubled and increasingly poetic, veering suddenly from the in-your-face facts of life, to cultural comedy and, inevitably, to surreal, anxious night-time imagery. It often sounds like the connection between the darkness and street violence of the early '80s and the obvious similarities to the tense, recession-hit Now, as a generation of kids raised to expect abundance and money find themselves thrown out of work by obscure mistakes in distant financial institutions. Nothing as direct or as dull as protest rock, you understand. Just snapshots of stressed young England from a precocious talent who has quickly evolved into an acute, self-possessed artist.

Kings & Queens is exactly the album that Jamie T's admirers hoped he would make... full of the gutter poetry, anger and humour of the first album. But tougher, more focused, more confident... and with even better tunes. Jamie is happy with his work, and typically defiant and self-deprecating in his ambitions for it. 'I made Panic Prevention four years ago. If this one doesn't sound different then it's a shame. This album was a process of freak-outs, then confidence, and then just... getting through it. If this album could achieve any one thing, it would be that it forces people to fuck off and let me get on with what I do. And for people to accept that I'm not going to do the same thing over and over again. There are artists that we all trust to do that, and I want to win the right to be one of those artists.'

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!