NUMBER 10: “YOUR SWEET BOOM” - JAMIE LIDELL - FROM THE COMPASS LP ON WARP RECORDS
For as much praise as Jamie Lidell has received for his ability to explore a range of sounds, I’ve often wondered what an album of his would sound like once he stopped with the genre exercises and one-off experiments and settled into a personal style. At this point he’s pretty much a soul singer but he’s on Warp Records and he has a history in IDM. His 2000 debut album was filled with jungle beats and glitchy stutters but his last album, 2007’s Jim, was hardly digital at all. It was blue-eyed soul with a bit of funk; all pianos, horns and bongos. Save for a little synthesizer, it’s instrumentation was all acoustic. Like a lot of other genre-hoping artists, half the fun of listening to Jamie Lidell’s albums has been the surprise and game of spot-the-influence that could be played from track to track.
The exciting thing about this year’s Compass then, is finally hearing Lidell transcend his influences and come into his own, fully formed sound. “Your Sweet Boom” is the most uniquely Jamie Lidell sounding thing he’s ever recorded. Fellow chameleon Beck was brought into the Compass sessions and while his rattling, junkyard percussion can be heard, “Your Sweet Boom” never sounds like a Beck imitation or homage. The same can be said for the Prince indebted vocals and of-the-moment producer Chris Taylor’s production is hard to miss. But instead of simply putting these sounds and influences next to each other, Lidell constantly mutates the track; it’s a very organic sounding blend of vocal hooks and harmonies. The track refuses to sit still, shifting styles and ideas into each other and by the time the track ends it doesn’t sound like any of Lidell’s collaborators or inspirations. It just sounds like him.
BONUS: When Lidell hit the road in support of Compass he put together his first fully-formed backing band. Their sound was much more garage rock than most were expecting. Hear their re-imagined take on “Your Sweet Boom” here.
