It’s obvious that techno producer-turned-soul crooner Jamie Lidell‘s voice has been gradually improving. On his last album, the outstanding Multiply, the instrumentation and production was the star of the show. On JIM, Lidell‘s voice is front-and-center. Rather than hopping from style to style, JIM plants its feet and instrumentation in one place and allows Lidell‘s songs and voice to carry the tunes. The relative uniformity of the sound tends to detract from the personality of the music; without the ups-and-downs and genre-hops of Multiply, you’re left with a collection of mostly decent soul tunes with a few standouts and a few misses. First, the standouts: “Green Light” captures smooth 70s soul perfectly, Lidell’s voice suiting the Barry White arrangement absolutely perfectly. And opener “Another Day” does the piano stomp of early Motown perfect justice; when the flute-and-horn bridge hits, it’s a reaffirmation of Lidell’s talent and imagination. Unfortunately, JIM features some spectacular failures. Ballads like “All I Wanna Do” and “Rope of Sand” feel like they were written specifically for inclusion on another Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. The gauzy reverb and cheesy acoustic guitar do no favors to the tepid songs themselves. On Multiply, when the tempo got reduced, the energy stayed high – tracks like “Game For Fools” became standouts instead of embarrassments. Here, however, the balladry is limp and disappointing. A few duds would be fine if the album wasn’t just ten tracks. Despite a few standouts, most of the album feels like it’s just there. Lidell is an expert at recreating the sound of soul past, but JIM lacks the ability to reimagine and reinterpret it.
-Pat Hajduch
Jamie Lidell: www.jamielidell.com
Warp Records: www.warprecords.com