JAMIE LIDELL > Jim

Along with his last solo project, 2005’s Multiply, British producer Lidell turns away from his earlier electronica and techno dance tracks, opting instead for an organic-sounding neo-soul atmosphere.
Label: Warp
[Rating: 2 1/2 STARS]

Along with his last solo project, 2005’s Multiply, British producer Lidell turns away from his earlier electronica and techno dance tracks, opting instead for an organic-sounding neo-soul atmosphere. While his manufacturing of time-honored r&b grooves deserves some praise for its mostly authentic instrumentation, he still depends on pumped-up, blind repetitions of riffs and choruses that don’t compensate at all for the lack of compelling song development, or even any clever hook lines. However sincerely he pitches his delivery, his singing voice is more a series of sneaky impersonations than the unremitting beacons of hope and fountains of sorrow that came out of Memphis, Detroit, or even L.A. At best, he comes across sounding like Dan Hartman, a self-producing chameleon of an earlier day, whose crackling tenor could similarly front neatly packaged blue-eyed soul projects on occasion, though he oddly inhabits Fogerty-like territory on the noise-flavored rock pulse of “Hurricane.”