James Vincent McMorrow at Village Underground, London, review: Emotional gravitas and poignant lyrics

The artist is more than capable of holding a crowd, but even he struggles to maintain the tone through a two-hour set

James Vincent McMorrow performs at Village Underground (Dafydd Owen/Retna/Avalon)

James Vincent McMorrow playing three consecutive nights at Village Underground, at two hours per performance, appeared to be a case of someone biting off a little more of than they could chew.

McMorrow is undeniably an incredibly talent artist: lyrically poignant and more than capable of holding a crowd, yet even he struggled to maintain that attention for the entire night.

Things weren’t made any easier by the decision to play new album True Care in full to start the evening. This isn’t to say it’s a bad album at all, it’s actually a great piece of work: opening track “December 2914” shows a new side of McMorrow’s thinking, shrouded in curiosity rather than the more direct angst of the title track.

After a 15-minute interval (following the new album playthrough), McMorrow finally delves into his archive performing songs from Early in the Morning and Post Tropical, and there’s an immediate change in the vibe of the night on a track like the exquisite “Get Low” from 2016’s We Move.

The two-hour slot clearly took its toll towards the end of the set with McMorrow stating after a duff note that 99 per cent of people wouldn’t have spotted: “There will be some mistakes, but put it down to sweat and exuberance from my part,” he jokes.

The decision to omit arguably his most famous track, “Higher Love”, is one that didn’t necessarily go down too well with anyone other than the avid fan. Luckily for James, there were a lot of them out that night, and boy are they loyal.

McMorrow expertly entwines emotional gravitas with a soulful, pain-wracked voice that on a good night is powerful. However, on this night things fell just that little bit flat.