ALBUM REVIEW: Jim
By: Scott Rader
5/1/2008
Jim, by Jamie Lidell
Jamie Lidell, the guy behind "more, a little bit more" Target
commercial, returns for an album of smooth R&B and soul. While the
song from the Target commercial is a bit of a novelty, Jim packs a
punch with fun, easy going, mostly timeless numbers.
It starts out with the deep, bass piano sounds of Motown on "Another
Day." Lidell delivers on that promise with soul-inflected singing
reminiscent of the good old days. That's right, the good, old days.
There's nothing better than some really good old school soul, and
Lidell makes me pine for it.
He keeps most of the album like this. It's hard to imagine it was
produced in 2008. Second track "Wait for Me" has Lidell coming off like
a one-man Jackson 5 as he bounces through the sunny chorus with ease.
And he even gritties up his voice, getting that soul edge of people like Otis Redding on "Out of my System."
Probably
the most current sounding song on Jim is "Hurricane." It keeps the
driving drums and twinkles of the old, school, but it also has a
current club feel. Still it's one of the best songs on the album, even
if it does sound a lot like "Out of my System."
