Jamie Lidell’s a popular guy. And why shouldn’t he be? Between releasing two great modern soul LPs, playing consistently great live shows, and beatboxing on the beach, the man just adds up to a whole lot of likable. So likable, in fact, that Mr. Lidell has been able to enlist a handful of his high-profile buddies to help out on his new LP, Compass, due out via Warp on May 18.
How high-profile are these buddies, you ask? Somewhere around a Beck on the Fame-o-meter, that’s how high-profile. And while Beck is certainly the biggest name on Compass, the rest of the supporting cast is no slouch. Among the folks showing up for this little soiree are Leslie Feist, Ms. Feist’s producer Gonzales, Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, and Wilco’s Pat Sansone. Lidell’s own thoughts on this impressive list of collaborators: “You don’t fuck with them!” Well said.
As for the sound of the album itself, the folks at Warp describe it as “his most eclectic album yet,” featuring songs that “shift, chop, change and mutate genres and forms before our very ears.” If that sounds like a restless piece of work, it may reflect Lidell’s relatively quick writing process this time around. “I wrote every song in a month,” Lidell said. “It’s been an emotional couple of years, so I tapped into what I wanted to say and started writing.”
• Jamie Lidell: http://www.jamielidell.com
• Warp: http://warp.net
