JAMIE
LIDELL – Jim
(CD/LP, Warp)
The third album of Jamie Lidell is great
music to run to. Which I do, to rarely I’ll admit, but enough to keep
updated on mainstream music by listening to those albums which seem
worthwhile on my old mp3-player, one of those rare breeds that only hold
approximately one and a half albums. If you think that is retro than wait
for the music I put on it. Moreover, my usual turn is about one hour and a
little something so that fits perfectly. Anyway, “Jim” is stuck full
with songs that are great to run to. Catchy, driving soul-crunchers so fit
and lose at the same time you think that Berry Gordy himself had his divine
mixing hand in there and not some outgrown laptop fiddler. I have mentioned
this elsewhere, how I am not sure if Lidell is the real thing or a faking
poseur, but with the current fad in crunchily produces soul music – all in
the wake of Amy Winehouse stumbling through the yellow press under the
influence – I’ll give him a thumbs up for trying to make his way.
Because, after all, Jamie Lidell writes his own songs, which ought to give
him a lot of credit that he may lack in vocal superiority, dances like a
fool and wears gold lined jackets.
Two days ago, when I was out running, I
suddenly realised an important fact: when singing, Jamie Lidell is
impersonating Stevie Wonder. I mean the middle, twenty to twenty seven year
old Stevie Wonder of Innervision, Songs in the Key of Live and even Talking
Book, not the twelve year old soul wonder nor the outdated chartsmonster of
the Eighties. I mean the real, groovy, supercool Stevie Wonder. The one you
didn’t knew about when you wondered why so many people made such a fuss
about this blind dude who sang “I just called to say I luv you” in the
middle Eighties. And Jamie Lidell is covering all kinds of tricks and
manners of Wonder. Right from the first song on “Jim”, the stomping,
groving “Another Day”, which is a perfect opener for a soul album, but
it sounds so much like Stevie Wonder I was checking on the display.
To some this might be an interesting idea,
or even accusation, and I wonder if anybody has ever dared to confront Jamie
Lidell with this idea. But there are some meta levels to that. The one is
that on the song “out of my system” Lidell emotionally and intensively
sings about how he has to get real, stop faking and get all the shit out of
his system. Then I remember Andre Williams, the black soul godfather and
dirty old man of about a dozen soul styles (If you are halfways interested
in soul and have never heard songs like “Jailbait” or “Bacon Fat”
you should probably check the planet you are on) who worked at Tamla /
Motown during the time Stevie Wonder hit it big the second time around, say
that Stevie Wonder couldn’t really sing but used to fake his way through
songs by impersonating soul singers who best fit the song. Despite the fact
that I don’t believe this, because Williams was just envious of the
success of this whiz kid in contrast to his own efforts.
Musically, it is retro, but great soul
nonetheless. The production is full and authentic, honest and with enough
grit to make you grumble your teeth while you shake your butt. It has all
the horn- and stringsections you could cry out for and the rhythm section is
as tight as a pack of chips. Has it been produced for real or is it still
all laptop music? Honestly, having mutilated the songs into tiny 192kbps an
listening to them while trying to spit out my lungs for sixty minutes, I
can’t really tell. I relistened to “Jim” in more relaxed positions and
again, the songs worked for me, what more can I tell you.
