At the moment I have a lot of albums stockpiled from last year to this year, and I am slowly making my way through them. On this bleak weekend, I decided to sit down and draw for a bit while listening to James Righton’s feature debut, The Performer. For some cool background, Righton was a member of one of my favorite now defunct bands, Klaxons (still holding out hope they will reunite). Another cool factoid about Righton is that he’s been married to actress Kiers Knightley for quite some time! Now that we know that cool stuff, let’s get to the review!
All in all, this was a much shorter full-length than I was expecting, especially since Klaxons have been broken up for a good number of years. I know before this solo effort James did make music on another project, but that was also at least four years ago. Regardless, The Performer definitely has a lounge-singer vibe to it all the way through. While that might not totally be my style, there is no denying that James has a heavenly voice that doesn’t ever seem like it should be coming from his mouth. I felt this way about him in Klaxons, too. It’s very impressive! Most of the songs here were very toned down and melodic, and there was a large emphasis on the piano. There was even a nice saxophone solo at one point! Compared to his other projects, this effort definitely went back to more instrumentals rather than electronic beats and sounds like much of Klaxons’ work.
It’s hard to deny the sheer brilliance of the opening title track, “The Performer.” It reminds me a bit of Elton John, but the lyrics and vocals are all his own and it ultimately makes for a very catchy number. Another stand-out song for me was “Are You With Me?” because it seemed to be a nice companion song to the opening track. As I said before, most of the rest of the album was slower paced and almost dreamlike, which makes sense when he’s got a closing track called “Lessons in Dreamland Pt 2.” Most of the rest of the songs on this album I couldn’t really differentiate from one another on a first listen, but there is definitely promise there. One also can’t ignore the nod to his daughter in the song “Edie.”
Regardless of my overall take on this record, if I ever get the chance to see a former member of Klaxons in concert, you bet your ass I’m there! James Righton’s vocals remain as his defining instrument, but there is no denying his talent as a solo artist. Hopefully there is more to come in the future!