Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Cullum, Jamie
Label: Island Records
Release: 2013
Duration: 51:57
Rating: 4/5
»Momentum« is the sixth studio album from British jazz pop pianist and vocalist Jamie Cullum. This time around, the guy approached making a record differently. Maturely. He jotted down every idea on the spot, using whatever gear happened to be within reach when inspiration struck. Dictaphones, recorders on mobile phones and iPods, even »old-school« cassette players, and he reportedly even popped over to the nearest instrument shop now and then to play certain motifs and record them, and so on,…Above all, though, the defining feature is a solo, Do It Yourself approach. That’s how most of the skeletons for this album’s songs came to be.
This way, the musician wanted to create a record with as much authenticity as possible. That’s the maturity principle, which comes to the surface more and more clearly with the years, Cullum included. And that’s a very good thing. The album »Momentum« – even its title says a lot – captures those moments when a musical idea hits you and you want to immortalize it. It happens spontaneously, unexpectedly, and you can’t predict these moments. You can half-expect them, but they usually happen when you’re not thinking about them. Correction. They always happen when you’re not thinking about them. There are twelve such moments on Cullum’s new record, and over the four years since his predecessor »The Pursuit« in 2009, the guy managed to deliver the welcome amount of variety between tracks, making for a polished, nicely varied record in terms of arrangements, one that’s full of fresh authorial expression and, most importantly, full-blooded insight into Cullum’s musical character. It’s also interesting that he decided to record another version of Love For Sale, originally written by songwriter Cole Porter for the Broadway musical »The New Yorkers« (ah, where have the thirties of the last century gone?). That song already appeared on Cullum’s debut »Heard It All Before« (1999), but this time it’s been upgraded with maturity in the coloring of its building blocks. And it’s not the album’s only cover. The other is Pure Imagination, originally by Anthony Newley, an English actor, singer and songwriter, and Cullum really shines in it with a subtly sensual approach, nourished by a lightly unobtrusive jazz accompaniment from the piano. The ballad Get A Hold On Yourself, just before the album’s close, doesn’t escape this moment either. The song You Are Not The Only One was inspired by Cullum’s stint on the three-person jury of the British reality show »Must Be the Music«.
On this record the musician walks, better than at any other point in his career, the thin dividing line between cabaret-style »jazziness« and modern pop culture, which he works into his music especially thanks to inspiration from the songwriting approaches of modern alternative bands of arena-and-stadium fame, such as Coldplay. At a few points on the album the scales tip toward a soul jazz swing cloak (When I Get Famous, plus both covers mentioned, Pure Imagination and Love For Sale), while others will happily knock on the door of teenagers keeping up with what’s new in popular indie rock and pop (The Same Thing, Everythng You Didn’t Do, Sad, Sad World, Save Your Soul). The real middle ground between the two approaches is boldly captured in Take Me Out (of Myself) and the closing You Are Not The Only One, both born to be hit singles.
From the first second to the last, the album carries a natural complexion, an organic sound that never gets stiff for even a moment (no »hiding« behind effects here), and above all, once again (and in this case that’s the only right call), Jamie’s sensual vocal interpretation takes the lead, sounding intensely lived-in and genuine in how it stirs up emotion. With that attribute, Jamie pretty much nailed 95% of what matters on the album, when it comes to its authenticity. One of the album’s strongest compositions is definitely Edge of Something, where you get a feeling of dramatic reverie, melodic compactness and sentiment that could steal even the best moments of Robbie Williams’ catalogue from the first half of the first decade of the new millennium. The album has that typical Island touch of melancholic longing. A similarly convincing, mood-kindred moment of the record is Anyway, in the middle of the album. Cullum has matured as a lyricist on this one too. The messages carry weight and real, tangible substance, without a shred of the shallowness someone might use to mislead the masses.
We can say that with his sixth studio effort Cullum isn’t offering a musical revolution either, but in what he does, he’s at his most expressive and very convincing. His musical character has matured another notch with this album, and with this ripe, polished record the guy holds down a great middle lane that brings together the tastes of younger, middle-aged and older generations of listeners. In that lane Cullum can feel relaxed and unburdened, and as such keep on creating completely independent, original music full of fire!
Lineup
Jamie Cullum – vocals, piano, keyboards, xylophone, guitar, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Christopher Hills, – bass guitar
Bradley Webb – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Kolone Soto – violin
Laura Stanford – violin
Eleanor – Stanford – violin
Emma Parker – violin
Catrin Win Morgan – violin
Graham Du Plesis – cello
Amy Stanford – viola
Nozomi Cohewn – viola
Natalie Williams – backing vocals
Janet Ramus – backing vocals
Vanessa Heynes – backing vocals
Production
Jim Abbiss & Dan The Automator
Tracklist
01. The Same Things
02. Edge Of Something
03. Everything You Didn’t Do
04. When I Get Famous
05. Love For $ale (Feat. Roots Manuva)
06. Pure Imagination
07. Anyway
08. Sad, Sad World
09. Take Me Out (Of Myself)
10. Save Your Soul
11. Get A Hold Of Yourself
12. You’re Not The Only One
