Posted on 05/01/2008
Ever since Multiply, Jamie Lidell’s occupied a prominent spot atop my “If I Had To Be Another White Guy” list. The kid’s ridiculous. He wears a gold cape on stage and dances like an epileptic tribesman. His influences are disparate but solid; think Amon Tobin meets Lou Rawls meets a black MJ when Quincy Jones still had his back. But while his 2005 breakout release found him straddling post-industrial electro, 80’s dance pop and smoky old piano soul; Jim is more focused, songwriter friendly and organically funky.

“Another Day” begins with birds chirping and “Wait For Me” comes off like some young Billy Joel drizzled in gospel sauce. Listening, my smile becomes prominent and I’m thinking, why did positive and cheese have to become so synonymous? Weren’t there artists who made upbeat joints like these that didn’t have to get filed in our closeted guilty pleasures drawer, like porn? Yeah, their names were Marvin and Stevie and they left a gaping hole in what’s come to be considered soulful, i.e. human. Jaime comes boomin’ like Cocker with “Out Of My System” and melancholy cool on “All I Wanna Do.” I can almost see Quest backing this dude, a big pick raised prominently during the pauses.

The second half of Jim launches into funkland with the lead single, “Little Bit Of Feel Good,” a jam of equal parts Innervisions and Sesame Street that employs aural treats like talk-boxes and Moroccan coconut flutes. “Figured Me Out” ups the ante to synthy dance funk driven by the employment of percussion style-miser Alex Acuna from Weather Report. “Green Light” comes in like “Human Nature” and urges the youth to trust their instincts, an advisory far from hypocritical seeing how adamantly Jamie has come to trust his own.

In the age of beat programming, vocal filters and the newest and latest ring tones, it warms the soul to hear someone drop a record like this. And amidst his old soul piano croons, it’s not like Jamie’s above the occasional effect. The difference is, he just knows how to use it. In the words of the artist himself, “I prefer to think of it as timeless material. I haven’t tried to hide my influences.” Oh shit, you mean people still pay dues??? Lidell exits stage left, dips into his DeLorean and scrambles through time in search of his next muse.

 

- Jeff Artist