‘Jim’ is a blue-eyed Soul revue that ranges from early 60’s Mod stompers and late 60’s James Brown style funk to the 70’s sophistication of Al Green. It works as long as Lidell sticks to the formula.
Soul is a fairly formulaic genre, you have to get it just so. If you don’t get it right, you end up with coffee table music or worse. Don’t get me wrong, Lidell’s got Soul. But there are moments on this album where the soul influences are watered down and sweetened up until the result runs dangerously close to middle of the road pop with token Soul bits.
Lidell’s brand of Neo-Soul works best when he sticks close to a particular school of Soul songwriting and playing. ‘Green Light’, for instance, is a Memphis Soul ballad. You can almost hear Al Green popping his head into the studio.
‘Where’d You Go’, on the other hand is all urban polish and confidence. Like The Capitols doing the ‘Cool Jerk’ all over again. Then there’s ‘Little Bit Of Feelgood’, which takes the James Brown band’s hit sound from circa ‘Cold Sweat’ and works it into a, well, cold sweat.
When Lidell goes his own way, like on ‘Wait For Me’, his smooth vocals paired with the very slick production result in fairly bland fodder. Lidell’s brand of pop is rather shy. His songs are not the kind of pop song that jump out at you demanding your attention.
Caught between retro Soul and understated pop, ‘Jim’ is easily likeable but miles away from being loveable.
Lidell, formerly one half of techno-influenced dance duo Super Collider, showed a more excentric approach to Soul on his 2005 album, ‘Multiply’ - A much stronger album by comparison. He has one of the best white Soul voices around, but to reach the popularity of an Amy Winehouse or Duffy he will need to inject a bit of drama into his music.
We say: 
