In the mid-2000s, U.K.-born Jamie Lidell made the unlikely transformation from underground dance producer to white soulman. His fourth solo album is a disc of elegantly warped love songs: Cut with help from Beck, Feist and Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, Compass keeps up Lidell's blend of creamy come-ons and fuzzy beats. Lidell evokes Prince on the falsetto-rich "Your Sweet Boom" and TV on the Radio on the Beck-co-written "Coma Chameleon," which mixes an excellent, eerie chorus with horn blasts and white noise. Lidell loses focus on tracks like the depressive, atmospheric piece "Big Drift," but he spends much of Compass showing how to be a smoothie and a weirdo — one way, at least.
Wavelength
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