James & The Shame Is A Human Overboard With Nothing Left To Love: A Review
Country music is synonymous with few different topics of conversation, but the context of which it’s discussed depends on the style of country music. If you’re listening to mainstream country, you’ll probably hear a ton of songs about Jesus, God, and praising Christianity, which is all fine and dandy, because people have the right to practice any faith they choose (even if they don’t practice one at all). The thing is, if you dig deeper into alt-country, folk, and indie country, you’ll find a lot of artists that criticize organized religion and examine its role in society and how harmful religion can be. One artist that does this is Rhett McLaughlin, but you may know him as one half of the YouTube duo Rhett and Link, as well as Good Mythical Morning. A couple of years ago, McLaughlin announced a country project that he calls James And The Shame. James is McLaughlin’s middle name and he said that “and the shame” comes from the shame his middle name gives him when thinking about his time as a devout Christian.
So far he’s only put out a couple of projects, which include his 2022 debut Human Overboard, and the 2023 EP Nothing Left To Love. I wanted to talk about both of these together, because they’re both relatively similar, yet you can also hear some growth from the album to the EP. Regardless, both of these records are wonderful, and absolutely worth your time. If there’s one aspect about James And The Shame that I love, it’s that you can listen to this without any context at all without knowing who Rhett is. This isn’t your average “YouTuber music,” and this is music that can stand up on its own, especially if you enjoy country.
McLaughlin’s sound is also incredibly interesting, opting for an old school country sound but still mixing some modern folk-pop into the mix for good measure. Human Overboard keeps the old school country sound, whereas Nothing Left To Love has a more Americana and singer-songwriter feel to it. There’s less twang on that EP in the instrumentation, although McLaughlin’s voice still has a Southern accent to it. It seems like he’s playing with other sounds and influences on Nothing Left To Love, but Human Overboard isn’t one note, both in terms of the instrumentation and the lyricism. The latter is what James And The Shame focuses on, and that’s one of McLaughlin’s strengths of many.
Before I talk about the lyrics, I wanted to talk about the overall sound some more, especially McLaughlin’s voice. His sound is very warm, inviting, and familiar, and his voice is the same way. He has such a good voice, I was blown away the first time I listened through these albums. Everything about these records is just so good, but it’s clear the focus is on the lyrics and what he’s saying. That’s a good thing because he has a lot to say. The lyrics are where these albums truly shine, and a lot of this record is about two things — his deconstruction and his family / friends. The EP expands his lyricism a little bit more, but it stays in the same wheelhouse.
If you’re a deeply religious person, let alone somehow that doesn’t want their beliefs challenged, this isn’t for you. McLaughlin doesn’t say anything negative about Christians as people, but he does criticize certain things that Christians do, such as “In Vain,” where he poses the hypocrisy of Christians not liking when people use God’s name in vain, yet they’ll use God as an excuse for why their football team won, or how their politicians got into office. It’s a double standard, isn’t it? The album is full of songs like that, especially about him growing and realizing that Christianity is not full of love and joy that he thought it once was.
