The Wendy James

The Shape of History

Here it is then! My 10th album! 

1. Pop Art
2. Velveteen 
3. Little Magnets versus The Bubble Of Babble 
4. Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears
5. Racine No.1
6. Racine 2
7. I Came Here To Blow Minds
8. The Price Of The Ticket
9. Queen High Straight
10. THE SHAPE OF HISTORY

The Shape Of History will be released on Friday 25th October and will be available digitally and on Deluxe Vinyl and Deluxe CD. 

Buy Now: https://thewendyjames.com/product-category/the-shape-of-history-vinyl-and-cd/ 

THE FIRST SINGLE IS ‘FREEDOMSVILLE’

Wendy: “I grew up, musically, in the age of the sequencer. There was Transvision Vamp and there was Sigue Sigue Sputnik and we were both drawn into the future by Ridley Scott’s movie Bladerunner. The futuristic, seedy glamour of an overcrowded Chinatown and the high, high skyscrapers, where the masters of the universe observed and policed down below. Also Polanski’s movie ‘Frantic’, Beineix’s movie ‘Diva’, European dark electro and Klaus Nomi’s ‘The Cold Song’. I wrote Freedomsville on guitar like all my songs and in the end I didn’t use sequencers at all, it’s all real playing very rhythmically on repeat for just short of six minutes straight!”

You can buy the Freedomsville VIP Bundle here:
https://thewendyjames.com/product/freedomsville-digital-single-hi-res-artwork/

THE SECOND SINGLE IS ‘EVERYTHING IS MAGIC’

Wendy: “I needed this song to soar, to be ethereal, uplifting and exultant, cresting a darker undertone with emotional builds and dynamics. The magnificence of human nature when it rises up in the face of adversity and meets great challenges, endures great suffering and remains graceful and humble, with awe inspiring dignity. The impermanence of one’s own existence, merely the passage of eternity. The will to remain in the light. This song does exactly what a song should do, even with no lyrics to guide you, one will feel the weight of emotions, of history, of life, sometimes lifting up, sometimes falling down and sometimes comfortably numb. Some of the lyrics are personal to me, there is a subjective truth here and I get a wry pleasure from them, but I’ve written broadly too, everyone can relate.” 

You can buy the Everything Is Magic VIP Bundle here: 
https://thewendyjames.com/product/everything-is-magic-vip-bundle/

THE THIRD SINGLE IS ‘DO YOU DIG IT? DO YOU LOVE IT? IS IT GROOVY?’

Wendy: “For survival one has to know how to close down peripheral noise. How to block out distractions, the buzz-buzz-buzzing of irrelevant irritations, from the myriad interference aimed at you. Know what matters and what does not. In all walks of life this surely is true, but I’m certain, for me, in the music business and throughout fame ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ has been essential. Meet it head on, eye to eye, toe to toe. It’s not the music friendship, it’s the music business. This song is, as you would expect to be, up in your grill! Fully engaged, locked and loaded with highly explosive alt psyche punk and a little Monkees thrown in for good measure!”

You can buy the Do You Dig It? Do You Love It? Is It Groovy? VIP Bundle here: https://thewendyjames.com/product/do-you-dig-it-do-you-love-it-is-it-groovy-vip-bundle/

THE FOURTH SINGLE IS ‘THE SHAPE OF HISTORY’

Wendy: “Some things never change, I’ll always be the wild girl dancing on table tops till dawn. I love the movie ‘Smithereens’ (1982) by director Susan Seidelman (before she made ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’). That movie woke me up, a clarion call! Where I belonged! Where I was headed! Downtown NYC. I had my first crush from that movie! Richard Hell is so pouty, so mean, but quite nice too?! The opening scene with actress Susan Berman as Wren, going down into the subway and stealing the two-tone sunglasses out of the hands of another passenger, all to the hypnotic sound of The Feelies ‘The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness’ was everything I wanted! Wren goes to the Peppermint Lounge every night to hand out flyers for herself. It’s a rock n roll look at broke down NYC, The Bowery and The Lower East Side. For me, this is heaven! My teenage in Ladbroke Grove had it’s share of misdeeds, scrapes and hi capers in the West London underworld, but when I listen to my New York musician friends talk about their time in no electricity lofts, no elevators, rats, junkies, thieves, my heart goes zing! So that’s what this is! It’s ‘The Shape Of History’ my history. It’s Desperately Seeking Susan, It’s Smithereens, it’s Scorsese’s ‘After Hours’ it’s CBGB, it’s Max’s Kansas City, The Peppermint Lounge, it’s downtown NYC, it’s Cindy Wilson screaming “I’ll give you fish, I’ll give you candy” It’s me, forever, dancing on tables tops til dawn.”

You can buy The Shape Of History VIP Bundle here:
https://thewendyjames.com/product/the-shape-of-history-vip-package/

THE SHAPE OF HISTORY

THE VINYL

Buy Now:
https://thewendyjames.com/product/the-wendy-james-album-10-deluxe-12-vinyl-download-signed/

A wide spine cover, double vinyl LP. One 12” vinyl and one 10” vinyl, to allow for top quality audio for all 13 brand new songs. The 12” plays at 33 1/3 rpm and the 10” plays at 45 rpm. They are packaged together with fully printed sleeves, inner sleeves and a 12 page full size booklet, containing multiple new photographs, all the lyrics, the credits and hand written liner notes by Wendy (you also get an automatic digital download)

ALBUM LENGTH – 56:30

12” SIDE A 33 1/3 RPM

1. Sweet Like Love (3:41)
2. A Happy Life (3:09)
3. Everything Is Magic (5:23)
4. May I Kiss You? (Just Enough To Get Us Into Trouble) (4:13) 
5. The Crack And The Boom Of The Creeps And The Goons (3.35) 

12” SIDE B 33 1/3 RPM

6. A Big Vicious Rumble (5:53) 
7. Do You Dig It? Do You Love It? Is It Groovy? (3.53) 
8. Don’t Let Daylight Into Magic (4:35) 
9. This Declaration Of Love (4:21) 

10” SIDE A 45 RPM

10. Freedomsville (5:47)
11. Step Aside Roadkill (4:36) 

10” SIDE B 45 RPM

12. Thank You For The Time We Shared (2:23) 
13. The Shape Of History (4:31) 

THE CD

Buy Now:
https://thewendyjames.com/product/the-wendy-james-album-10-deluxe-cd-signed/ 

The CD is packaged like a mini vinyl! There is the outer front cover, a fully printed inner sleeve and a 24 page booklet containing multiple new photographs, all the lyrics, the credits and hand written liner notes by Wendy 

ALBUM LENGTH – 56:30

1. Sweet Like Love (3:41)
2. A Happy Life (3:09)
3. Everything Is Magic (5:23)
4. May I Kiss You? (Just Enough To Get Us Into Trouble) (4:13) 
5.The Crack And The Boom Of The Creeps And The Goons (3.35) 
6. A Big Vicious Rumble (5:53) 
7. Do You Dig It? Do You Love It? Is It Groovy? (3.53) 
8. Don’t Let Daylight Into Magic (4:35) 
9. This Declaration Of Love (4:21) 
10. Freedomsville (5:47)
11. Step Aside Roadkill (4:36) 
12. Thank You For The Time We Shared (2:23) 
13. The Shape Of History (4:31) 

Wendy: “My 10th album! My songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally reflect the different music and references I have and love. My sweet spot is mid-late 70’s downtown NYC New Wave Punk: CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. It is from this sound that my taste for sequenced and dark NY and Euro electro and no-wave evolves, original punks ‘The Stooges’, glam rockers the ‘New York Dolls’, English Punk/Pop the ‘Sex Pistols’, French Yé-Yé Girls, American 1950’s Rock and Roll, Rockabilly and 60’s Motown, Girl Groups, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson. Also Hip Hop music, original B-Boys the ‘Beastie Boys’, East Coast versus West Coast, Dr. Dre! The King of New York Lou Reed and ‘The Velvet Underground’, black rhythm and blues from 1930’s depression era America, African American slave era Spirituals and therefore Country and Bluegrass music, Willie Nelson and his fellow Outlaws! Bob Dylan, Jamaican Ska, British Northern Soul and movie soundtracks! Big scores! Big opening numbers! George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Skyline ‘Rhapsody In Blue’. London and The Kinks ‘Waterloo Sunset’ or Paris, Saint Germain and Serge Gainsbourg ‘Initials BB’. Movies, movie directors, literature, authors, artists, activists, all filtered through the prism of my adventures and experiences in life and in music. I work with musicians and engineers who share the same or similar references as mine. They are my fellow musicians and my friends, I trust them implicitly to push until the very last take and to always give everything they possibly have inside them.” 

I have spent so much time with this music, I know it note for note and I love it and I am so happy for you to now make it your own. 

Love

Wendy xo

CREDITS

Written and Produced and Mixed by Wendy James

Recording Engineer – Tomas Gagliardo assisted by Rosendo Zinny at LeMob Studios, West London, UK, Al Lawson at Mix Studios, West London, UK, Ben Rice at Degraw Sound, Brooklyn NY, USA

Mix Engineer: Jesse Nichols at Atomic Garden West Recording Studio, Oakland, CA. USA

Mastering Engineer: Frederic Kevorkian at Kevorkian Mastering Inc. Brooklyn, NY, USA

Lead & Backing Vocals – Wendy James

Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Keys, Clarinet – Alex Ward

Additional Lead & Rhythm Guitar – Louis Eliot

Piano, Organs, Keys – Dave ‘The Moose’ Sherman

Bass – Harry Bohay

Drums & Percussion – James Sclavunos

Artwork Design – Wendy James & Noah Eve

Photography and Video – David Leigh Dodd

All songs written and composed by Wendy James. Released by The Wendy James Label. P & C Wendy James 2024. All rights reserved.