Jamie Cullum: The Pursuit

AKIE BERMISS: Jamie Cullum is a kind of enigma in the music business.  He’s a wild jazz piano-playing rockstar from England.  He’s a bit like the UK’s Michael Buble, only much grittier and irreverent.  I came to know his music in 2005 when I came across his Twentysomething album.  I remember thinking it was a pretty great record.  A good amount of jazz, pop, and piano.  The record had a particularly acoustic and direct quality to it, like you might walk into a tiny jazz club and hear the band playing any given track.  Since that record, though, Cullum has gotten a little produced and overwrought for my tastes.  His latest release, The Pursuit, is a little less prefab sounding.

And for the better.

The record begins with a big band arrangement of the Cole Porter standard Just One Of Those Things.  A great vehicle for Cullum’s semi-scoundrel persona.  And its a romping, fanfare decorated opener for the recorded.  Of course no track thereafter reaches such heights of sound and scope, but its not necessarily required for an album to have an entirely common theme.

Of course, part of what makes Twentysomething so fantastic is how it does seem to have a very loose narrative throughout.  Or at least a self-deprecating theme on the idleness of we lost yet lucid 20-somethings.

Ok so the record leaps about with no real focus as far as singular thought.  Some tracks are genuine heartfelt ballads (If I Ruled the World and I Think, I Love ) some are raucous throw-down acoustic sessions (You And Me Are Gone, I’m All Over It) and then there are some strangely electronic-leaning cuts that also sort of work for Jamie (Music Is Through, We Run Things).  It all works really well with Jamie’s sensibility and you do get a sense, as you listen through, that the guy can really make anything work with his voice and a piano.

The downside is you get the feeling that he is, therefore, going to trying EVERYTHING he can make work with his voice and a piano.  The tracks can be shockingly different at times, which is certainly cool — but it might be nice if all that talent was funneled into a more coherent vision for a record called “The Pursuit.” Still I guess those are not really reasons not to like the record.

For me, Jamie is best when he’s doing his particular kind of swing.  Which is not to say that he has to be playing jazz standards or standard-sounding originals, but there is a very particular kind groove that Cullum makes work oh so well.  Its a sort of stomping swing.  Almost like there could be a big band behind him (though there generally is now) or like the track could be a hip-hop or pop track.  And that is used most effectively on tracks like I’m All Over It, You And I Are Gone, and his Rihanna cover: Don’t Stop The Music.  Not that all those tracks sound the same  – to me, they are pretty significantly different, but they have the connection of being Cullum’s particular brand of uptempo swing/funk/rock.

If I have any particular criticism its of the pop-style balladry of “If I Ruled The World.”  The song not only full of hopeful cliche — it was, itself, a cliche.  Really?  Another “If I Ruled The World” song?  How many of those have we heard over the years?  Let me guess: slow, almost ponderous, tempo, nice big melancholy chords, and lots of couplet that start with “if I ruled the world…”

Cullum can do much better.

I thought the cover of “Not While I’m Around” the great Sondheim ballad from Sweeny Todd was a bit of stretch.  They pulled it off, for sure.  But not for any particular reason, it seemed.  It just sort of holds it place. I was also not so fond of the bland “Mixtape” — a song about a boy who makes up with his sweetheart by making her a mixtape…  Yes, another cliche.  And none too interesting, either.

Finally, though, we got my favorite Cullum setting: the slow, soul-pop tune.  Just after his rollicking version of Don’t Stop The Music, we get a nice smooth 6/8 tune called “Love Ain’t Gonna Let You Down.”  Its nothing crazy or unexpected, but its a cool, laid-back love song.  Complete with some syncopated horn-section work.  A solid tune, there.  A bit whitebread — but memorable.

And as a sort of musical post-script (though it appears in the middle of the album) I loved the strange old-timey sound of the Cullum original “I Think, I Love.”  It comes off a bit trite to start, but soon its obviously more campy than anything else.  And camp is like heroin for jazz lovers.  By the time the strings come in at the end of the second A-section, its a sealed deal.

All in all, its a pretty good album for the no-longer-twentysomething (Cullum apparently just turned 30) and if, in the future, he focuses on applying his significant talents to a more narrow target we may just get a few more classic albums out of Cullum even unto his — gasp! — 40s…

HOWARD MEGDAL: Both Akie and I have a similar take on Jamie Cullum. I did have some different impressions of his particular choices in The Pursuit, and how well he carried them off.

Like Akie, I greatly enjoyed the Basie Orchestra-infused Just One of Those Things. His voice is strong enough not to be overwhelmed by that kind of accompaniment, and that is underselling- he is value-added in the song.

I thought the album then reached its apex with I’m All Over It, which owed something to Jason Mraz, and I think is the best combination of Cullum’s best jazz/funk/pop hybrid tendencies.

But let’s point out- the initial track is one right in my musical wheelhouse, and my wife enjoyed it as well. Track two is right at the center of what she listens to, and one I enjoyed as well. In other words, there was some continuity there, both musically and in terms of reach.

We quickly devolve to Wheels, a repetitive song unsure of nearly anything, it seems. Agree with Akie on If I Ruled the World as well. More importantly, the two are almost lazily rendered- we know Cullum is capable of so much more, having just heard him.

You and Me Are Gone reinforces this- funk-inspired, with some of Cullum’s strongest piano work. And then- Don’t Stop the Music, a song I hate in original form, and Cullum doesn’t do nearly enough to change my opinion.

I happen to think Love Ain’t Gonna Let You Down has enough Cullum in it to be entirely listenable. And then we get Mixtape, an awfully unoriginal piece. I Think, I Love is beautiful in the same way as Love Ain’t Gonna Let You Down.

So we’ve had four songs, two of them original and beautiful, two of them entirely too reliant on recycled pop. You wouldn’t think they were in the same album.

And from there, Cullum loses me altogether- We Run Things is ludicrously repetitive, Not While I’m Around doesn’t have enough new in it, Music Is Through is what I’m trying to escape from in contemporary music when I seek out Jamie Cullum, as is I Love This.  And maybe Gran Torino worked better if I saw the movie.

That is not to say I regret listening to the album- several tracks are worth the price of admission, and I think it is worth encouraging Cullum generally, because there is a ton of talent there. But I think Cullum needs to decide if he’s going to park somewhere between where my musical tastes intersect with those of my wife, or if he’s going to live far closer to the pop edge. Aside from my own selfish reasons for hoping he chooses the former, I think it is his only choice- too much of the latter and he loses us, while his original takes on songs will likely leave him out in the cold when it comes to the Top 40.

Tags: Cole Porter, I'm All Over It, Jamie Cullum, Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down, Rihanna, Stephen Sondheim, The Pursuit, twentysomething

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.