Momentum by Jamie Cullum

Here's another album review I wrote last year for KKBox. This was my favorite of the new albums I reviewed in the first half of last year; I eventually purchased a copy. Despite what I say in the first paragraph of the review about all his albums being "jazzy...melodic pop and rock", I've since gotten the impression that many of Cullum's earlier recordings lean somewhat more heavily toward pure jazz, though there was always an element of pop-rock; certainly on the album before this, The Pursuit, the jazz element is more pronounced. Regardless, most of what I've heard from him has been pretty good.

Momentum is the sixth album from British singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum. Like most of his previous recordings, it features an eclectic mix of jazzy, piano-driven melodic pop and rock. Cullum started playing piano and guitar as a child and, influenced by his older brother Ben, fell in love with jazz. He gets inspiration from a wide variety of music, ranging from jazz greats like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, and Bill Evans to rock icons like Elton John, Donovan and Tom Waits and more recent artists like the Ben Folds Five, The Wedding Present, the White Stripes and Massive Attack. His music, while remaining rooted in jazz and pop-rock, reflects his wide ranging taste.

The album opens with the propulsive, percussion-driven “The Same Things”, which propels the album to a strong start, though the abrupt ending is slightly disconcerting. Even better is the dramatic, soulful “Edge of Something” and the catchy “Everything You Didn't Do”, which was the album’s first single. The old-fashioned soul torch song “When I Get Famous” is another standout track, one that it’s easy to imagine someone like Amy Winehouse singing. Next up are a couple of covers, something Cullum includes on most of his albums. In this case they are a modern, jazz fusion reworking of Cole Porter’s classic “Love For Sale” (or “Love For $ale” as it is called here [Note: the video is a bit creepy; as an alternative, here's a live studio performance]), complete with a rap by Roots Manuva, and a solid version of “Pure Imagination”, a ballad from the movie Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Among the notable originals from the remainder of the album is “Take Me Out (Of Myself)”, which has an indie rock flavor vaguely reminiscent of the similarly titled hit by Franz Ferdinand. The gentle “Get A Hold of Yourself” is a guitar-based ballad, which makes an interesting change from the more elaborate keyboard-based arrangements on the rest of the album. The album closes strongly with the powerful pop of “You’re Not the Only One”, which was inspired by his stint as a judge on a music talent show.

Cullum’s skills as an arranger and composer are the first thing to grab the listener, but his lyrics are often well-written and intriguing as well. One of the best is the somewhat tongue-in-cheek “When I Get Famous”, and other lyrically interesting songs include the album’s other look at fame-seeking, “You’re Not the Only One”, and “Take Me Out (Of Myself)” with its jaded, cynical look at partying. Even when his lyrics are nothing particularly special, they fit the music well and do nothing to detract from it. A few songs get slightly repetitive, such as the otherwise good “Anyway”, but for the most part Cullum avoids getting stuck in any ruts. Even the slightly more conventional sounding songs like the melancholy “Sad Sad World” or the power ballad “Save Your Soul” are well done [I've particularly come to like the latter], and each song is distinct from the others, unlike many pop albums where many of the songs sound the same. The production is slick without being overly so, and Cullum throws a wide variety of sounds into the arrangements. While they don’t amount to anything revolutionary, all these elements make Momentum a very entertaining recording for fans of good pop music.