There is something comforting about Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) that makes the new album feel like a classic Jamie T album with the familiarity of vulnerability, anger and restless energy but with an added sense of growth and maturity.
The foundation of Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) comes from years of old voice memos recorded on his phone that became forgotten over the years and now given a new life and turned into full songs, making the album feel like a journey into a new Jamie reflecting on love, loss and difficult periods of his life as well as feeling like an imposter as referenced in 'Tallahassee'
While the basslines, guitars and restless rhythms throw us back to the classic Jamie T bangers we know, the perspective feels different. Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) is an album about growing up, changing and trying to understand the person you have become. It doesn't dwell on the past so much as acknowledge that it never completely disappears.
3310 the title track and first single from the album is the initial anthem of this new era, with the hook of 'If you're blackcurrant, what does that make me? Cider' feels like the perfect chant back song that we've grown to love in Jamie T songs, a British nostalgia trip with a hint of poetry throughout.
.From there, ‘Cocktail’, which features work from Damon Albarn, comes at us with a punchy bassline, smooth guitar riffs and a more bouncy energy that wouldn't feel out of place in a club. Beneath that energy, however, are lyrics that hit considerably harder: “I'm tired of making plans, breaking promises I've made and losing friends I had.” It's a feeling that becomes increasingly familiar as we grow older, making plans, breaking them, losing people and realising that life doesn't always follow the path you imagined.
Title track 'Ghosts' originally by The Jam is Jamies take on the song. Adding a more groovy bassline and a faster pacing, he helps bring it to the modern age while also keeping its tenderness that helped him fall in love with the song. It's more than simply a cover, the song feels like a key to understanding the album itself. Without ‘Ghosts’, the album may never have existed in the form it does today, with the song helping Jamie find his way and inspiring him to rewrite its words into something of his own.
Ending the album is Tallahassee, a song I mentioned at the start. A very atmospheric intro which uses a sample of Leif Vollebekk's song of the same name. the song feels as though it's a reality check for Jamie and where he is at with his career, noting that he's the voice of a generation with the lyrics "I'm the soundtrack to your university years" but then we're hit with the imposter syndrome we all feel now and again as he namechecks Lily Allen, Tracey (Emin), Paul Heaton and Liam Howlett of The Prodigy and how he feels like he's a plagiarist.
Although the album isn't perfect, it feels as though it isn't supposed to be. Its imperfections are part of what makes it feel so human. The thoughts and struggles Jamie explores are not unique to him. They are the kinds of things many of us find ourselves wrestling with as we get older. In opening the door to the thoughts and feelings that have followed him over the last few years, he gives the listener space to recognise some of their own.
To me it's a coming of age album. Waking up and accepting that these thoughts and memories may stick with us forever, but they don't define us. We don't have to let go of everything that once defined us, but we certainly don't have to be held back by it and let it control who we are or who we become.
