James Yorkston- The Year of The Leopard (Domino,2006)
Confession time: I am a huge Fence Collective fan, of which James Yorkston forms a part-hell, it's through Fence that I heard about the 100 Days project. Despite this, I don't know James Yorkston's work that well. I own most of the records, but haven't got round to listening to all of them properly. I've seen him live twice but still, only know a couple of albums properly. This is one I don't.
It's pretty much the archetypal JY album; acoustic guitar, the occasional clarinet, accordions, fairly sedate. There are some really lovely songs on this- in particular 'I Awoke', in a less spartan arrangement than on his mini-album Hoopoe, the title track and 'Summer Song'. In a way, the album is strangely predictable. There are no huge surprises and the tracks pretty much flow into each other (except for the stream-of-conciousness vocal/electronic combo of 'Woozy With Cider'. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it makes for an album that works as a cohesive whole. Although this is a more immediately accessible collection, I'd still say that I prefer JY's 2002, Moving Up Country.
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