Jamie Lidell : Jim

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/jamielidelljim.jpg" alt=" " />The ever-inventive Jamie Lidell shows his soul and goes funky on his semi-self-titled latest, <em>Jim</em>....
7.4 Warp
2008 

 The ever-inventive Jamie Lidell shows his soul and goes funky on his semi-self-titled latest, Jim. The second solo record for the English-born musician isn’t as completely surprising as 2005’s Multiply, where the previously electronic experimenter Lidell jumped into R&B.  However, Jim is an altogether better record, trading in much of the too-silky smooth stylings for some up-and-at-‘em soul-funk that wouldn’t be out of place on a James Brown tour.

Jim starts things like Rickey Henderson – with a leadoff home run, in the form of “Another Day”.  The upbeat, catchy soul is both classic and fun.  The following “Wait For Me” plays similar, maybe a little more poppy, but still a damn good time.  Lidell moves like the hardest working man in show business on “Out Of My System”, with some pressing soul-funk.  The party atmosphere keeps up on later tracks like the dance-y “Little Bit of Feel Good”, ‘stomp the floor’ blues of “Hurricane”, and high-toned, short-and-to-the-point “Where D’You Go?”

However, Lidell does not ignore his slower, softer side, first with the stripped soul of the touching “All I Wanna Do”.  He also finishes Jim with the quiet and intimate “Rope Of Sand”, a real change on the record.  Somewhere in between these two sounds, he can get a little sloppy, though: the simple wa-wa soul of “Figured Me Out” stops and starts a bit too much, and the relaxed nature of “Green Light” leaves it a little too ‘easy listening’.

We’ve come to expect the unexpected from Jamie Lidell, from Multiply to his live show, where he layers tracks and sounds over his microphone, beatboxing and more (at Bumbershoot Festival in 2006, his performance literally set a speaker on fire…).  Now Lidell rolls with it, taking what you know and building up and out – not just Jamie, but Jim.

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