James Taylor - Before This World

4/5

Review:
Unmistakeably James Taylor, and he's still sounding good 

I am pleased to say that this is a good album. James Taylor can still write a fine song and perform it very well, and he's produced some good stuff on Before This World.

There are some very familiar Taylor themes here; love of land and family and a yearning for home are especially strong in Montana, for example, and there's a fine tribute to both baseball and family ties in Angels of Fenway. The music, also, is often very recognisably James Taylor, with the distinctive modulations and melodic fluency which have characterised so much of his work. There are less interesting tracks, I think, like the opener Today, Today, Today which doesn't do much for me but, by contrast, I found Far Afghanistan simply stunning. It's a thoughtful, original take on the war in Afghanistan; it is moving , intelligent and musically wonderful, with a dark, hypnotic melody and superb production which lends it real power. The album is worth getting for this track alone, I'd say.

Taylor is more in folk mode than his more rocky or jazzy styles here, which is just fine by me. That lovely, honeyed voice isn't quite what it was but it still sounds very good, and his guitar playing remains as good as ever, which is very good indeed. Production is very nicely judged, the whole album has a very nice feel about it. You'd have no difficulty at all identifying this as a James Taylor album if you heard it blind, which to me is a very good thing indeed.

I have loved much of James Taylor's work for over 40 years now, but after hearing a rather uninspiring performance on Jools Holland's BBC programme I was worried that this album wouldn't be very good. I'm relieved to say that my worry was misplaced: Before This World does have its weaknesses, but overall it's very good, with some superb highlights and I can recommend this.