Jamie Lidell - Compass

Thu 20th May, 2010 in Music Reviews

Compass is a remarkable achievement and also a remarkable mess. It goes through more genres than a Quentin Tarantino film in about the same amount of time, only saved by the fact that the supremely talented Jamie Lidell is holding shit together.

It will confound new listeners, it will surprise even regular adherents of the Lidell Church of Sound, but one thing it won’t do is bore you. Say what you will about the raft of so-cool-it-hurts guest artists and producers; Beck, Feist, Gonzales, Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear, but an exhausting 14 tracks later, it’s clear that Compass is uniquely Lidell.

His fingerprints are all over the thing; from the yelping vocals down to the bass beat boxing that he’s made famous during his live shows. It’s a daring, audacious and eclectic mix from the man who’s become the synonym for all three.

Like LCD Soundsystem’s latest, Lidell’s new record won’t suffer as much from comparison to others as it will from comparisons to its own back catalogue. But goddamn, is it fun.

Whether he’s getting his Prince on ( She Needs Me ) or his Otis Redding ( Your Sweet Boom ), Lidell rips apart the tenets of what makes a pop song and starts again. He’ll change feels without warning, bring on a cacophony of noise or a four-part harmony without any precedent, and generally revel in his ability to constantly stretch the fabric of mainstream acceptability.

It’s no wonder Warp Records kept Lidell on their roster even after the straight-ahead soul of Jim; they know he’s about as predictable as Iceland’s volcanoes.

The end of the record clearly shows the fruit of a frenetic recording session with Beck, with no less than three tracks that wouldn’t sound out of place on Mutations or Modern Guilt. But throughout the wizardry and the dizzying musical about-faces, the one thing that stands tall is Lidell’s voice. It’s lovely and warm and real, and no matter what effects he pulls out of his techno trick bag, he can’t disguise the truth that he is a wonderfully talented singer.