Track Listing

1. Space
2. Falling down
3. English beefcake
4. Junkie
5. Pleased to meet you
6. The shining
7. Senorita
8. Gaudi
9. What is it good for
10. Give it away
11. Fine
12. Getting away with it (all messed up)
13. Alaskan pipeline

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8803 in Music
• Released on: 2001-07-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
After nearly 20 years together, James at last seem to have created their definitive album in Pleased to Meet You. Linked by themes of addiction, unrequited love, growing-up and parenthood, the album is crammed full of new material that follows the style and formula of some of their greatest work from the last three decades. The songs on Pleased to Meet You were all played out for live audiences before the band entered the studio, making this a tried and tested album but without usual loss of creative autonomy. Booth's trademark lyrics are just as surreal and contemporary as ever--"Junkie" is a weird but sincere attack on capitalism's intensified grip on everyday life, ("chocolate, kisses, Pokémon, hit em' while they're young"). The influence of album producer and long-term collaborator Brian Eno can also be heard from the album starter "Space" to the eerie but ambient overture. The 80s-synth style "Gaudi" is a direct throwback to 1982, the year the band formed. This is a cumulative collection of all that's great about James. --John Galilee

CD Description
The Manchester band's follow up to 1999's 'Millionaires' was produced by Brian Eno. It includes the single 'Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)' and more of their melodic folk-tinged indie rock. Eno described the recording process as being "like making a first album", with a band "full of excitement and enthusiasm".

Customer Reviews

Simply great!
I tried not to get too expectant with this, the last James album I bought was 'Seven' which was great, but since then, though the singles have remained strong, the albums have been slightly weak.

But when I listened to this it all came back to me. James are such a great band and Tim Booth has things to say, unlike most so-called songwriters!

The hooks are there, melodic choruses, everything! Tim Booth's lyrics are as descriptive and as wonderful as ever! I think it's a brilliant album.

though it's not perfect. I don't rate 'The Shining', 'Senorita' or 'What is it good for' as very much, but 10 out of 13 is not bad, today that is a superb ratio.

The highlights are of course 'Getting away with it', 'Falling down', the superb intro on 'English beefcake' makes it a good listen and 'Alaskan pipeline' is a beautiful track. There always seems to be one real gorgeous track on a James album. On 'Seven' it was 'Don't wait that long' on this album it's 'Alaskan pipeline'.

A must listen for any fans of creative and imaginative rock.

Worth anybody's money
Okay, listen, I'm a James fan in a big way, but I can still regognise a good album from a bad one, and I don't think all James albums are great. But this is very, very good. Buy it.

Okay, so it's had little commercial success and no-one heard many of the songs on the radio. But that's s shame, not a fault. If only for the fact that it'll be the last studio of the band (as we know it, at least), it's worthhaving. But there's more to it than that.

It's a good album, and probably James' best behind "Laid", in my opinion. And that's because it offers something for everyone. For the 80's James fan, Gaudi is punchy and in common with their stuff from the Strip Mine/Stutter era. For the Whiplash fan, there's Fine, a track which it would appear the band like for its more "dancy" feel. For people like me, who like James at their most anthemic, there's the single, Getting Away with It (All Messed Up). And there's also English Beffcake (eerie, quite in common with the Laid era) and Alaskan Pipeline (think Top of the World - vocals and little else that you notice, and a beautiful sentimental piece).

You get the idea. Just buy it, and don't listen to any particular track. Listen to it as a whole, let it wash over you, and enjoy a great final album from a band who stopped when they could still kick considerable ass.

One of the best albums ever.
That's quite a title I've made, but it's true. While there is not a track on PTMY that is a traditional classic, like Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven, I can only describe this album as one of the best ever made. I heard the only single, Getting Away With It (all messed up) on the radio at the end of 2001, having never heard any James songs apart from Sit Down before. I kind of fell in love with that song, and having bought the album the rest of the album is just as good.
I have listen to this album at least once a week. I don't know why, it just really is that good. When I end up thinking, 'not much music suits my mood right now.... what can I put on the CD player...' I see this album and play it, and never get bored with it.
The album as a whole is quite dark, certainly darker than James' previous albums (which I have bought since buying this album). There isn't that much change in style between the songs either, but this isn't a bad thing. Each track feels linked on to the next, so it is easy to listen to the album as one long track rather than individual singles. There seems to be the same beat and temp running throughout the whole album, behind the individual track's beats. The songs move along at a comfortable heart beat pace, not too fast or too slow, and the dark theme fits well, it's not devoid of hope but certainly a look at the world through mature eyes rather than singing about (comparitively brief) love affairs that many other artists write about. There is a lot to write about but all I will do here is recommend the album. It starts off dark, lightens up in the last half and ends in what is perhaps resignation with the track Alaskan Pipeline, which is mournful yet not depressing.

Tim Booth, who has since left James, said that this was the best album James had ever done, and I agree with him - this album is my most listend to album ever, and I cannot get enough of it, and if that is not the basis for one of the greatest albums of all time, I don't know what is - and I 've heard plenty of 'classic' music.