Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(73/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
ChartAttack
The Guardian
The Independent	(favourable)
musicOMH
Pitchfork Media	(7.4/10)
PopMatters	8/10
Q
Spin	6/10
Uncut

Hey Ma is the tenth studio album by British alternative rock band James. It was released on 7 April 2008. Receiving positive reviews from critics, the album peaked at No. 10 in the UK Albums Chart and charted for 5 weeks.

After a successful reunion tour, as well as playing a variety of festivals over summer 2007, James teamed up with the producer and musician Lee 'Muddy' Baker to start work on a new studio album. (Baker was previously most notable for his work with James' singer Tim Booth on Booth's 2004 solo album, Bone.)

The band, with the help of Baker, built their own studios at the Château de Warsy in France, a studio that consisted of a main studio as well as personal studios for each member of the band in their rooms. This allowed each member to constantly feed ideas back to Baker in the main studio. Baker also allowed the band to jam at leisure, a technique that has been credited with creating some of the band's most successful songs including "Sit Down" and "Sound". It also ensured a sense of spontaneity that has often been a major selling point for the band.

During this brief time the band wrote 120 possible compositions. According to the band, eight of those were created in a single five-hour session, an impressive feat by any standard. The songs that grew from these compositions were then mixed by Baker, who added additional parts such as backing vocals (often his own). These sessions eventually became Hey Ma. James have said that they believe this to be as good, if not better than any previous efforts.

The first tastes of the new album could be heard as far back as the 2007 reunion tour when the band decided to play a then new song, "Upside". It became an instant fan favourite. No further new songs (excluding the two new tracks from the Fresh as a Daisy compilation which was released alongside the reunion) appeared until a secret gig in London prior to the festival tour, which saw the debut of two new songs entitled "Not So Strong" and "Traffic". (Fans were surprised to see that neither of these songs were in the final track list for Hey Ma.)

After the festival tour, James played two nights in Hoxton Bar and Grill on 10 and 11 September. These two shows were composed entirely of new material, including every track from the latest album. Despite the obvious desire of people to make recordings of the new material, James insisted that people did not. Thankfully for the band, a recording of the two Hoxton gigs has yet to see the light of day.

...
Wikipedia