Album Notes

Saint Jude is the debut album of Robin James, recorded at Toe Rag Studios, Hackney, in just a few hours, the day he left London to live in Yorkshire. The album was recorded with one microphone, for all but one song, straight on to tape. “I wanted the process of recording to reflect the album. The songs are about brokenness, uncertainty and letting go, which are reflected, in the raw, limited and exposed approach. The temptations to edit and manipulate the songs are taken away when recording onto tape, which is both liberating and slightly frightening. But as Leonard Cohen sings – ‘forget your perfect offering; there is a crack, a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in’.” Robin’s fragile, yet powerful, voice, and carefully crafted lyrics, draw the listener into a world full of paradox, vulnerability and unknowing, where light and darkness coexist.