Jamie Lidell - Jim

Rating:

* * *

He's an odd chap this Jamie Lidell - he's that rare breed of electronica producer who can sing too. He brought that combination to the fore on his last album

Multiply

and this time round it's even more about sweet white-boy soul music played on real instruments and his Jamiroquai-meets-Terence Trent D'Arby voice. While that latter comparison might be off-putting, fear not. Lidell has a crisp and clean style, especially on chirpy opener

Another Day

, with its cheeping birds and feel-good clap-along, and the slinky

Green Light

.

Although sometimes, like on the raucous

Out of My System

, it comes across tinny and thin rather than deep and funky. And there is no excuse at all for the neo-soul gabba thrash chorus of

Hurricane

.

On

A Little Bit Of Feel Good

, where his inner Stevie Wonder comes out, and fun-loving hoot

Where D'You Go?

his voice has a more spirited and lively tone, and things get a little more fractured, and almost Timberlakesque on

Figured Me Out

. It's these sorts of diversions, and slow swooning moments - like the beautiful

All I Wanna Do

- that you want more of because thoughts of Terence and Jamiroquai tend to linger and nag in your ear.

Scott Kara