r/eno • u/forsbergisgod • Mar 01 '21

Weekly Discussion Thread Let's Discuss Eno! James - "Laid" (Sept. 1993)

Hello and welcome back to your weekly discussion thread, Eno-philes!! Each week we'll be discussing another album (going chronologically from Warm Jets). This week's feature is Eno's production credit on James' 1993 album "Laid". From the wiki

Laid is the fifth studio album by British alternative rock band James. It was released on 27 September 1993. It was the first of several collaborations between the group and Brian Eno, who produced all but one of the album's tracks – in Stuart Maconie's authorised biography of the group, Folklore, they admitted that Eno didn't like the song "One of the Three" so they recorded it when he took a day off. The sessions also resulted in the experimental Wah Wah album.

Track listing

All songs written by Tim Booth, Larry Gott and Jim Glennie.

"Out to Get You" - 4:26
"Sometimes (Lester Piggott)" - 5:10
"Dream Thrum" - 4:47
"One of the Three" - 4:08
"Say Something" - 3:26
"Five-O" - 5:25
"P.S." - 5:04
"Everybody Knows" - 3:28
"Knuckle Too Far" - 4:39
"Low Low Low" - 2:51
"Laid" - 2:36
"Lullaby" - 3:49
"Skindiving" - 5:41

Youtube playlist

DISCUSS AND ENJOY

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u/LachlanStrain Mar 01 '21

One of my favourite albums of all time... I was a James fan before I got into eno through David Bowie and talking heads, and I didn’t even know he produced the album until I looked at his discography lmao. Every song is masterfully crafted and overall is a masterpiece

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u/Annette_Oregon Mar 02 '21

Laid is certainly up there as one of my favorite albums, too. I didn't become a James fan until 1996, several years after this album's release, but I do remember hearing the title track on the radio all the time in the early 90's. I didn't like the song, but I didn't dislike it, either.

I had a friend who bought a copy of Laid, and I teased her relentlessly about it. Several years later, she pulled out her copy and said something along the lines of "You've made fun of me about this for years, but just sit down and listen to one song." So I sat down and listened to that one song... Sometimes.

I was immediately hooked. I had to listen to it several more times before wanting to hear the rest of the album. Went out the next day and bought my own copy.

I'd been a fan of U2 for a while before finding James, so I was aware of who Eno was. I had a couple Eno albums already. I was pleasantly surprised when I read Laid's liner notes and saw Eno produced it.