Australian country-rock artist James Keith has plenty to celebrate with the release of his second album, I Call It Magic When I’m With You, out today, Friday, 9 October. Across fourteen tracks, he traces the highs and lows of a relationship, from the thrill of new love to the challenges of distance, doubt and making it all work.
Keith grew up in Orange, in regional NSW, where he and his four brothers helped transform the family farm into the Mortimers of Orange vineyard. He later moved to Sydney’s Northern Beaches to pursue a rugby league career with Manly, following in the footsteps of his father, Peter Mortimer, and uncles Steve and Chris. Music, however, ultimately won out.
His 2024 debut, Life Is Good Today, spent two weeks at the top of the ARIA Country Albums Chart and marked him as an exciting new voice in Australian country music. The follow-up builds on that foundation. Expect big country-rock riffs, soaring choruses and infectious optimism, paired with some of his most personal songwriting yet.
We’ve been following Keith’s rise here at The AU Review, and were delighted to premiere his single “This Life” back in July. That track features on the new record, much of which draws on his girlfriend and the past two years they’ve spent together.
What really sets the album apart is its honesty. Keith throws himself headlong into the rush of falling in love, without pretending the uncertainty that comes with it isn’t there. Chance encounters, time spent apart, family scepticism and even a birthday present that grew into something much bigger all find their way into the songs.
Keith has put considerable thought into the running order too, with lyrical references and recurring threads linking one song to the next. This is an album made to be heard from start to finish.
To mark its release, we invited Keith to take us through I Call It Magic When I’m With You track by track, sharing the stories, inspirations and moments behind each song.
James Keith – I Call It Magic When I’m With You – Track by Track
Album overview
This is a true, proper album to me. From track one through to track fourteen, every song is connected in some cool, weird or unique way, and together they tell the story of my life over the last two years.
It’s about love and new love, distance, doubt, people telling you something won’t work, optimism, positivity, good times and finding someone who changes your life. There are songs about meeting her, songs about missing her, songs about fighting for it and songs that simply celebrate how bloody good it feels when you find someone you genuinely love. What I really love about this album is how intertwined everything is. A line, a moment or a story in one song can turn up again somewhere else, and when you listen from beginning to end, there’s a real journey to it. It’s basically the soundtrack to the last two years of my life.
1. “Life Is (Still) Good Today”
“Life Is Good Today” was the first song I ever wrote and was part of my first album, so bringing it back felt like the perfect place to start this record. I wanted to remaster it, change a few words and have some fun taking an original song into a different style. Calling it ‘Life Is (Still) Good Today’ also feels pretty fitting because, all these years later, I still believe in exactly what that song stood for.
2. “She’s Worth The Wait”
“‘She’s Worth the Wait’ is about meeting someone later in life and realising that the right person is worth being patient for. It comes from being in a long-distance relationship and having to make some pretty big decisions, but underneath all of that it’s really simple: when you know someone is worth it, you’re prepared to wait until the time is right.”
3. “Alive”
“Alive” came from this moment where I was probably in the most fearless state I’ve ever been in. I saw this girl, walked straight up to her without overthinking anything, and in that moment I just felt unbelievably alive. The song is about that feeling of throwing fear out the window and actually living.
4. “The Moment”
“The Moment” is where the doubt starts creeping into the story. Should I be here? Is this actually going to work? Am I setting myself up to get hurt again? There were plenty of reasons and people telling us why it might not work, but I took the chance anyway, and I’m bloody glad I did.
5. “Best Part of My day”
“Best Part of My Day” is just pure new love. It’s about getting to that point where all the little things involving that person become the things you look forward to most. It’s not complicated. Sometimes being around the person you love really is the best part of your day.
6. “Cruel Game”
“Cruel Game” actually came from something my girlfriend’s nan said about our relationship: ‘It’s just a cruel game you’re playing with him.’ That line stuck with me and became a song about doubters, distance and all the outside noise that can get into a relationship. Ultimately, it’s about trusting yourself and what you feel rather than letting everyone else decide your story.
7. “Don’t Wanna Stop”
“Don’t Wanna Stop’”is one of those big, high-energy, anthemic songs that’s just about loving what you’ve got. It celebrates all those things your partner does that make life better and that feeling where you think, whatever this is, I don’t want it to stop.
8. “Man I Was Meant To Be”
“Man I Was Meant to Be” is about what this relationship brought out in me. It’s about stepping up, being masculine, taking responsibility, protecting and looking after the woman you love, and embracing some of those traditional roles in a relationship. More than anything, it’s about meeting someone who makes you want to become a better man.
9. “Living This Life”
“Living This Life” was the first song my girlfriend and I wrote together. We were sitting on my boat in the middle of winter last year and basically started writing about exactly what we were doing that day and what we had coming up in the weeks ahead. It turned into this beautiful pop-country love song that captures a real little snapshot of our life together.
10. “I Miss You”
“I Miss You” is about all the tiny things you miss when someone you love isn’t there. Waking up beside them, blowing them a kiss, making them a cup of tea, their little mannerisms and habits that probably mean absolutely nothing to anybody else. Those are the things that become massive when you’re doing long distance, because they’re the things that make that person them.
11. “She Don’t”
“She Don’t” is about two completely different worlds coming together: the city girl and the country boy. There are things about my world that she doesn’t understand or necessarily like, and vice versa, but the more time we spend together, the more those two worlds start blending into something of our own. I love that idea that you don’t have to be the same person to fit beautifully together.
12. “This Life”
“This Life” is about recognising when something is good for you and having the courage to lean into it. When you know a person makes your life better, makes you happier and you have an incredible time together, sometimes you need to stop questioning everything and just live it. It’s really about believing in the life you’re creating together.”
13. “SIXTEEN THOUSAND (16,251km)”
“Sixteen Thousand” is probably one of the most unique songs on the album because it actually started with a song my girlfriend wrote for me in German. She translated it into English, and then I rewrote it into my own lyrics while keeping the heart of what she was trying to say. We sing it together as a duet, which makes it incredibly personal, and musically it’s completely different for me. It’s this mix of Afrobeat, country and chilled acoustic sounds, bringing some of her musical world into mine. That feels pretty appropriate for a song that started with her.
14. “Happy Birthday”
I wrote “Happy Birthday” for her birthday last year. I sat down and started writing our story, the things we’d experienced and what she meant to me, and it turned into something much bigger than just a birthday song. It ended up being the perfect final track because it almost summarises the entire album. There are pieces of the stories and feelings from all these other songs wrapped up in it, so after fourteen tracks you finish right back at the person who inspired so much of the record. For me, it’s the perfect way to close the story.
You can give James Keith a follow via his website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and TikTok.
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