1990: "Crescendo", James

James is frequently lumped in with the Madchester crowd due to geographical proximity more than anything, but truthfully there was little on the band's first two albums that even settled down into a focused aesthetic at all, let alone the Madchester sound specifically. That focus started to coalesce substantially on 1990's Gold Mother (issued in the US as a self titled album), but there were still few overt dance or acid influences... the closest James got to the Madchester sound was the strident, epic pop of "Crescendo".