Can I just say 'wow'? Jamie Cullum's latest album, The Pursuit, came out a couple months ago, but I couldn't bring myself to listen to it just then. (My head wasn't in the right place, and I didn't want to taint the music by associating it with what was going on in my life.)
Well, yesterday I finally gave it a listen, and... he did it again. Just when I think he is already the greatest - he tops himself. This is a musician that truly evolves. There are still jazz songs and sounds in the album, but then he comes out with stuff like We Run Things and I'm blown away. I can't really explain it, but I just found myself so excited that this was a Jamie Cullum song. It's somehow a meld of many of the different genres I love listening to. (And I was not surprised to see his brother Ben co-wrote it with him, as Ben does some electronica-type stuff.)
When I try to describe Jamie's music to someone who hasn't heard of him (which still happens far too frequently - why do people still not know who he is?) and I tell them that he does jazz and so much more, they still make comparisons to that Buble character or maybe Harry Connick. Ah, but they're crooners. They're like Frank or Dino to a Louis Armstrong. All excellent, but just not the same thing. Jamie Cullum is the grit and the experimental and the evolution; always growing and trying new things, rather than just trying to sound pretty or being satisfied with simply making a new arrangement of an old standard.
I may be obsessed with this song for a few days...
love-love. lindsay
