12-06-2019, 10:29
JAMIE CULLUM ~ Taller
![[Image: 220px-Jamie_Cullum_-_Taller.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/Jamie_Cullum_-_Taller.png/220px-Jamie_Cullum_-_Taller.png)
This is Jamie Cullum’s eighth album and his first since 2014. He’s a crooner with soul/pop leanings and jazz pretensions, and this is a rather nice listen IMHO.
Some numbers are edgier than others which saves him from slipping into the category of pedestrian. There is a LOT of orchestration on this release which gives it a really solid feel (a bit like a Hollywood strings type of thing) and while I’m not convinced he’s found his 100% true metier, and may be trying to please everyone by chucking in bits from various genres along the way, how lovely it is to hear someone making great contemporary sounds with a bit of class.
His voice is naturally versatile and true, he doesn't need to shout, he has a fantastic falsetto and that’s him on the keys. There is a combination of more complex arrangements interspersed with simpler songs, some of which remind me of David Gray, Cathal Smyth (Chas Smash) and Neil Finn, despite that his core is considerably more jazz oriented than any of those gents. One might be forgiven for expecting more of a similarity to Bublé, but there’s not – not a lot at any rate! Soft yes, but with enough grit not to lose traction. Some songs I can leave, but there’s nothing objectionable here at all, and on the whole, I like it and predict that it will be immensely popular.
A live clip - one of the singles ...
This is Jamie Cullum’s eighth album and his first since 2014. He’s a crooner with soul/pop leanings and jazz pretensions, and this is a rather nice listen IMHO.
Some numbers are edgier than others which saves him from slipping into the category of pedestrian. There is a LOT of orchestration on this release which gives it a really solid feel (a bit like a Hollywood strings type of thing) and while I’m not convinced he’s found his 100% true metier, and may be trying to please everyone by chucking in bits from various genres along the way, how lovely it is to hear someone making great contemporary sounds with a bit of class.
His voice is naturally versatile and true, he doesn't need to shout, he has a fantastic falsetto and that’s him on the keys. There is a combination of more complex arrangements interspersed with simpler songs, some of which remind me of David Gray, Cathal Smyth (Chas Smash) and Neil Finn, despite that his core is considerably more jazz oriented than any of those gents. One might be forgiven for expecting more of a similarity to Bublé, but there’s not – not a lot at any rate! Soft yes, but with enough grit not to lose traction. Some songs I can leave, but there’s nothing objectionable here at all, and on the whole, I like it and predict that it will be immensely popular.
A live clip - one of the singles ...
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson