Let It Come Down (James Iha album)
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Let It Come Down is James Iha's first solo album. It was released in 1998, during which Iha was still with The Smashing Pumpkins, before the release of Adore. Iha took on a more acoustic country-ish sound reminiscent of the songs he contributed to the Pumpkins, notably shying away from the darker sound of Billy Corgan's songwriting.
Iha had said that the quieter tone of the songs reflected the fact that many of them were written in his hotel rooms during The Smashing Pumpkins tours, and he didn't want to disturb other guests by playing too loudly.
Be Strong Now was released as a 4-track single, featuring the bonus studio tracks "Falling", "My Advice" and "Take Care", and as a 2-track promo single where the other track is a 12-second clip from the song "Be Strong Now" called "Call Out Hook". Both versions of the "Be Strong Now" single feature the same cover. There is also an extended promo version of the single called "Be Strong Now (With Intro)" lasting 3:35.
Additionally, the song "Jealousy" was released as a promo single, without any B-sides.
The album was remastered and re-issued in February 2012 with the three tracks previously released as b-sides added as bonus tracks.
Track listing
All songs were written by James Iha.
- "Be Strong Now" – 2:48
- "Sound of Love" – 3:56
- "Beauty" – 3:44
- "See the Sun" – 3:59
- "Country Girl" – 3:01
- "Jealousy" – 3:26
- "Lover, Lover" – 3:21
- "Silver String" – 3:53
- "Winter" – 4:25
- "One and Two" – 3:31
- "No One's Gonna Hurt You" – 4:12
- "My Advice" – 3:15
- "My Advice" is a Japanese version bonus track.
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   link |
| Pitchfork Media | (4.9/10) link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
| Entertainment Weekly | (C+) link |
Chart position
Album
| Year | Album | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Let It Come Down | The Billboard 200 | No. 171 |
Personnel
- James Iha - vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, producer, string arrangements
- Neal Casal - harmony vocal, electric guitar
- Greg Leisz - pedal steel, lap steel and electric guitars, bass on "Lover, Lover"
- Adam Schlesinger - piano, bass on "Country Girl"
- Solomon Snyder - bass
- John Ginty - Hammond organ, piano
- Matt Walker - drums, percussion
- Curt Bisquera - percussion
- Eric Remschneider - cello
- James Sanders - violin
- Stacia Spencer - violin on "Silver String"
- Jim Goodwin - sax on "Jealousy"
- Ralph Rickert - trumpet on "Jealousy"
- D'arcy Wretzky - harmony vocal on "One and Two"
- Nina Gordon - harmony vocal on "Beauty"
- Tonya Lamm and Shawn Barton - harmony vocal on "No One's Gonna Hurt You" and "Country Girl"
- Eric Remschneider - string arrangement
Production
- Produced By James Iha & Jim Scott
- Post-Production By Scott Humphrey & Podboy, with post-production on "One and Two" by Flood
- Engineered By Jim Scott, with additional engineering by Steve Spapperi
- Mixed By Jim Scott; mix assisted by Mike Scotella
- Mastered By Stephen Marcussen
Additional Personnel
- Dave Menet - guitar tech
- Russ Spice - equipment
- Rob Austin - chef and mantra maker
- Q Prime Inc - Management
- Jill Berliner and Eric Greenspan - Legal
- Mark Kaplan - accounting
- Chris Billheimer - art direction
- Jeremy Goldberg - cover photograph
- Anette Aurell - back photograph
- James Iha, Kevin Wells, Larry Hirshowitz - collage photographs
- Lou Kregel, Patti West - illustrators
- Todd Tatnall, Pro Tools Editing