We’re on to a lighter summer schedule this week, down to two albums. The Foals are for all you Radiohead fans looking for something new. Jamie Lidell is the male answer to Duffy.

Yep, just like Duffy, Lidell is crooning his way through Soul-influenced pop. As former half of electronic dance duo Super Collider, he has a bit of an edge over Duffy when it comes to the music, though.

The Foals share Radiohead’s knack for playing rock with a groove. Younger, edgier and a bit more experimental than Thom Yorke’s lot, they have peppered their album ‘Antidotes’ with bits of Ska and Afro Funk.

Uneasy Skanking: The Foals ‘Antidotes’
Franz Ferdinand meets The Specials. Tight rhythms, metallic guitars and tense vocals. Check the weird skanking rhythm and almost Fela Kuti Afro style guitars and brass on ‘The French Open’. The metallic, purpuseful stride of ‘Heavy Water’ is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum, all angular and European, but no less engaging.

On ‘Balloons’ and ‘Cassius’, the Foals blend the pop sensibilty of Franz Ferdinand with the skanking Ska rhythms of The Specials. The Foals are not attempting a Ska revival, they are not even jumping on the New Wave revival that’s still going on. No, their music is much too 2008 for that. Slightly on the arty side, ‘Antidotes’ is nevertheless punchy and complex but not overcomplicated.

Listen Here to ‘Antidotes’ and download the album from iTunes.

Soul Time: Jamie Lidell ‘Jim’
‘Jim’ is a blue-eyed Soul revue that ranges from early 60’s Mod stompers to the 70’s sophistication of Al Green.

Soul is a fairly formulaic genre, you have to get it just so. 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’.

When Lidell goes his own way, he sounds rather shy. His songs are not the kind of pop song that jump out at you demanding your attention. ‘Jim’ is easily likeable but miles away from being loveable.

Listen Here