Hold Back The River – James Bay

I'd never heard of James Bay until hearing his album playing at a hi-fi show. This track stood out to me, then as ever I seem to have heard it everywhere. It keeps popping up in playlists and on TV shows.

Strange old lyric, guessing it means, just stop time for a while and let me enjoy the moment. There is a sense of lost love, life getting in the way of his relationship. Guessing the reference to riding bikes in the sky is a reference to the film E.T. and being young.

I like the guitar parts on this and it's quite old fashioned sounding to me, the intro with the guitar sounding mournful and his voice full of sadness draws you right in. It's a good imagery song, as we can all understand the chances of stopping a river flowing, but you have to hope it works out for him. There's a good chant in the middle for the crowd to join on with, a quite section going into a build just so he can chuck as much emotion as possible into the repeated chorus. All in all a well crafted song.

Oh and I do like his hat.

Favourite lyric : But now we crawl against the tide / Those distant days are flashing by