Jamie Lidell

Jim

[4.5/5]

While Jamie Lidell’s prior platter, 2005’s Multiply, was a kinetic collision of techno rhythms and blue-eyed blues, Jim mostly eschews any technology after 1974, instead exploring a more organic R&B style. What results is an intoxicating mélange of updated Motown and Memphis soul, with Lidell teasing and testifyin’ like a long-lost cousin to Al Green and Stevie Wonder, two soul brothers from different mothers. A few Feist-ites-Gonzales, Mocky and a sweetly subdued Peaches-chip in with some sonic tailoring, but what elevates Jim from the faux-soul Jamiroquai ghetto is the effortless exuberance and keen reverence that Lidell brings to the vocals and arrangements, hand-crafting dusty grooves as fresh as the first drop of the needle. It’s a stoned soul picnic from the new Soul Brother No. 1, so start the coronation party. (WARP) Erick Haight