“James” by Oscar And The Wolf

“James” is seemingly, first and foremost, some type of a love song. Oscar and the Wolf came up with the composition sort of unexpectedly. And on the same day he went to record it, his nephew, whose name is also apparently James, was born. 

So he named the song in honor of the lad. Thus “James” wouldn’t be the name of the actual addressee. However, it is reasonable to speculate that it is a male nonetheless, considering the fact that Max Colombie (aka Oscar and the Wolf) is gay and all.

Furthermore, us labeling this a love song earlier does not fully encapsulate the emotion contained therein. Yes, the lyrics are premised on the singer’s love for the addressee. But in the present, that love has by and large transformed into hate. 

That is to say that based on the first line of the first verse, this is someone who has broken the vocalist’s heart. And as most-clearly expressed in the chorus, in the aftermath the singer wants absolutely nothing to do with this person.

And we say “most-clearly” because those are the parts of the song that are actually easy to understand. The rest of the first verse, as well as the pre-chorus and the second verse, are a lot more metaphorical and, to be totally honest, relatively-indiscernible. 

This may be because Oscar and the Wolf comes from Belgium, a country where English is not used officially.

But again we do know the emotion upon which the entire piece is premised, the singer’s love for his ex. And we have also established that currently there is some discontent between the two. 

A love/hate song

So with those factors in mind, we can make an attempt to comprehend exactly what he’s talking about throughout. And putting all of it together, we can actually conclude that James is a love/hate song.

For instance, at the end of the second verse the singer, contrarily to the chorus, tells the addressee that he ‘wants’ him. And with such a hypothesis in mind (that the singer both loves and hates his ex), the pre-chorus starts to make more sense also. 

What it appears he is putting forth in that passage is that he is ready and willing to take this person back once the individual is “ready”. And said readiness would not be of the physical variety, but rather the addressee being mature enough to handle the love the vocalist has to offer. 

Indeed whereas the singer never goes as far as to specify exactly what this person did to offend him, it reads sort of like the addressee is apprehensive in terms of fully opening up to Max.

Summing up…

So conclusively it can be said that Oscar and the Wolf is addressing a toxic partner for lack of a better word – someone’s whose treatment of him is less than ideal. 

However, this is a person whom he loves, and he has not given up on the idea that they may end up back together. In fact what he is actually hoping for is the addressee shaping up so that they can enjoy a fruitful and fully loving relationship.

Oscar and the Wolf

Oscar and the Wolf isn’t a duo but rather one dude, Max Colombie, who comes from Belgium. He began making music professionally in 2010, and both of his first two albums, 2014’s Entity and 2017’s Infinity, were number-one hits in his homeland. 

As far as singles go his most-successful outing of the 2010s would be “Strange Entity” (2014), which has been certified platinum in Belgium.

Oscar has also established a name for himself outside of Belgium. 

Facts about “James”

“James” was released on 1 April 2021, seemingly as a standalone single. And it is apparently the first song Oscar and the Wolf has released since 2018’s “On Fire”. And the reason for such a long span in between singles was because he took sort of a break from the music industry.

This song was written by Oscar and the Wolf, and he also produced the tune with Jeroen De. And as Colombie tells it, he “woke up and had the whole thing in (his) head”, i.e. more or less conceptualized James in a dream.

Max Colombie also directed this song’s music video, accomplishing that feat in conjunction with Maky Margaridis.

As noted earlier, Max Colombie is gay. He definitively came out of the closet in 2017. And he has also implied that his music is unisexual, stating that he would prefer Lana Del Rey to cover his songs more so than any other artist, alive or deceased. And in fact “James” itself does not feature any gender pronouns in the lyrics.