Early James released his first album,
Singing for My Supper, just as the world slid into the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, so if any singer/songwriter has cause to claim that it's a
Strange Time to Be Alive -- the pointed title of his second album -- it's him. To his credit, he winds up delivering on the promise of his title, conjuring ghosts of the American South with his stylized soul and poetry -- a combination that can suggest
Tom Waits in his beatnik poet prime crossed with a blues troubadour. This heightened Americana is quite appealing, especially in the hands of producer
Dan Auerbach, who lets the ballads be painterly and gives the shambling numbers a colorful quality, letting
Early James growl against guitar grit and thickened thump in the rhythms. At nearly an hour,
Strange Time to Be Alive does indeed have a tendency to wander and linger, a characteristic that can be mildly maddening but also is ingratiatingly eccentric. Perhaps
Early James can recall such inspirations as Waits, but the way he assembles American myths and music has an idiosyncratic signature that only sounds stronger and more authoritative with repeat listens. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine