Let’s get one thing straight – no matter how many times you’ve gone back through your 15-year-old copy of Panic Prevention this year, you’re not about to get a second helping here. And if you think about it do you really want 36-year-old Jamie T, born Jamie Treays, to try and copy what he did in 2007?
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Theory of Whatever comes six years on from fourth album Trick, itself released five years after Carry on the Grudge and just as he has been ever since ‘Sheila’ blasted onto the late-2000s indie scene, Jamie T is still unapologetically himself and utterly inimitable.
Indeed, there’s an argument that this is Jamie T mk II – his latest record kicks on massively from its slightly underwhelming predecessor as it pushes boundaries in all directions, knitted together with his trademark South London delivery but with every element taken to an extreme. The bare-bones acoustic ‘Talk is Cheap’ represents possibly his rawest moment to date, the guitar-free ‘Keying Lamborghinis’ the most electronic (its deadpan vocals also making it uncharacteristically oppressive) and ‘A Million and One Ways to Die’ the most energetic – sticks, stones and steroids.
The only place you might find yourself double-checkingyou’ve got the right album sleeve is ‘Old Republican’, maybe the first time he has felt stadium-ready for the uninitiated as well as the ultras – there’s no doubt Jamie T fans would lose their minds to see the man himself boss Wembley, but this gives goosebumps of a different kind.
But ultimately we’re only human and some of the finest moments on the album are the ones which sound most like the rest of his back catalogue – ‘St George Wharf Tower’ is as beautiful and soul-bearing as anything he’s written since ‘Emily’s Heart’, the infectious ‘Between the Rocks’ runs with the unstoppable ‘Sticks ‘n’ Stones’ blueprint and lead single ‘The Old Style Raiders’ is indie played exactly as it should be.
As his exhilarating Glastonbury set last month drew to a close, Treays announced that “I don’t give a flying fuck anymore, I would play to an empty room”. There’s no way his adoring fans will ever let that happen, and The Theory of Whatever channels that energy, joy, and newfound freedom perfectly.
Words - Joe Ponting
Jamie T official
The Theory Of Whatever is out July 22nd on Polydor Records