Living in Extraordinary Times (2-LP) - James

Living in Extraordinary Times is a title that echoes Superchunk's galvanizing 2018 album, What a Time to Be Alive, and if James couldn't be further apart from that venerable North Carolina indie rock band, one thing is for certain: these two veteran alt-rock bands are both taking stock of the political unrest of 2018 while adhering to their own idiosyncratic aesthetic. Being one of the most idiosyncratic bands in modern rock history, this means Living in Extraordinary Times is plenty quirky, even if James address the Trumpian turmoil in a direct fashion that speaks both to their inherent grandiosity and Tim Booth's allergy to metaphors. Booth raves about "fake news" on "Heads," one of the many explicit allusions to meme double-speak and other modern plagues scattered throughout the album, but even if his words are foregrounded, they're overwhelmed by the sheets of sounds and surplus of ideas teeming throughout the album. Separating from Max Dingel, who produced 2014's Le Petite Mort an