Jamie Lidell - Compass

Jamie Lidell's fourth full-length album ‘Compass' will be released on May 17th 2010 (May 18th in the US).

Listen to a stream of the brand new title track at the bottom of this article, or over at the jamielidell.com holding page. Pitchfork have already described 'Compass' as a "shape-shifting mini epic... a track that sounds like nothing Lidell has done before".

The album was recorded in Los Angeles, New York and Canada, and it includes collaborations with Beck, Feist, Gonzales, Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear and Pat Sansone of Wilco.

Sessions began at Beck’s Hudson Studios in Los Angeles, where he gathered Jamie together with Wilco, Leslie Feist and veteran drummer James Gadson (who’s played with Bill Withers, Quincy Jones among many others) for Beck’s Record Club project (where a group of musicians cover an album in a day). Inspired by the chemistry of those jams, they shifted to the legendary Ocean Way Studios. There, they were joined by producer/keyboardist Brian Lebarton, singer Nikka Costa, and Justin Stanley. All would have an important impact on the album. Pat Sansone from Wilco and Chilly Gonzales (who’s played on both Multiply and Jim) were present as “musical meta-spirits”, recording their parts remotely and delivering them via the internet. As Jamie says of this formidable line-up of brilliant collaborators - "You don’t fuck with them"

Back in New York he began to make sense of this "great big mess on the hard drive". Then it was up to Feist’s ranch the Niagara Escarpment, Canada with Chris Taylor, member of Grizzly Bear.

"I wrote every song in a month,” Jamie says, "It’s been an emotional couple of years, so I tapped into what I wanted to say and started writing. There was a lot to draw on."

Jamie Lidell - Compass

WARP192 - Released May 17/18th 2010

Tracklisting

01. Completely Exposed

02. Your Sweet Boom

03. She Needs Me

04. I Wanna Be Your Telephone

05. Enough’s Enough

06. The Ring

07. You Are Waking

08. I Can Love Again

09. It’s A Kiss

10. Compass

11. Gypsy Blood

12. Coma Chameleon

13. Big Drift

14. You See My Light

http://warp.net/records/jamie-lidell/new-album-compass-featuring-beck-feist-chris-taylor-grizzly-bear

  Quote

"I wrote every song in a month,” Jamie says.

Uh-oh.

  On 2/10/2010 at 6:32 PM, Wall Bird said:

  Quote

"I wrote every song in a month,” Jamie says.

 

Uh-oh.

did you hear the sample song? its really nice

  Quote

01. Completely Exposed

02. Your Sweet Boom

03. She Needs Me

04. I Wanna Be Your Telephone

05. Enough’s Enough

06. The Ring

07. You Are Waking

08. I Can Love Again

09. It’s A Kiss

10. Compass

11. Gypsy Blood

12. Coma Chameleon

13. Big Drift

14. You See My Light

Reads like a fucking break-up album.

Multiply = Good.

Jamie Lidell live (circa 2004) = great

Jim =

Will need to hear a few more tracks off of this.

I was really let down by his last album, but I loved Multiply and judging from the description of this one + the sample song I'm going to love this one too. I ought to give Jim another listen since I probably haven't heard it more than twice since it first came out.

I didn't even like Multiply all that much, didn't listen to Jim.

I just want more Super_Collider.

The new track sounds alright though, pretty humble.

  On 2/11/2010 at 2:46 AM, sidewinder said:

 

I just want more Super_Collider.

 

  On 2/10/2010 at 6:35 PM, o00o said:

  On 2/10/2010 at 6:32 PM, Wall Bird said:

  Quote

"I wrote every song in a month,” Jamie says.

 

Uh-oh.

 

did you hear the sample song? its really nice

It's not bad. But I could never get into Jim because the songwriting was pretty weak and could have stood to be more polished. So, naturally, when I read that he wrote everything in a month I become worried it won't be so great. Anywho, I'll just have to wait and see when it comes out.

And yes, more super collider would be great.

"Sessions began at Beck’s Hudson Studios in Los Angeles .. for Beck’s Record Club project. Inspired by the chemistry of those jams, they shifted to the legendary Ocean Way Studios."

the latest record club has been >amazing<. not just the performances, but theres espicially delicious about the live production on this one too.

eg, Book of Moses, Diana.

Listening back to Jim, it's really quite good, just not particularly inventive. Of course I blew that one thing it lacked way out of proportion when it first came out and never gave it another chance. I've got to stop doing that.

New single is out on Pitchfork. Pritty pritti gooode.

Also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICEsQgWhNw

this got a very promising review in wire

they called it a return to form after jim and multiply

i liked multiply :(

  On 3/26/2010 at 10:00 PM, kaini said:

this got a very promising review in wire

they called it a return to form after jim and multiply

i liked multiply :(

That's good to hear, as I didn't really care or Multiply much. More a fan of his debut and Super_Collider.

The song posted when the announcement was first made did sound promising. Hope it turns out really good.

If I were Jamie Lidell, it would be tough to know which direction to persue. He's got stupid good vocal ability --one of the most soulful singers around right now-- but he's also got a gift for creating less vocal driven experimental electronica. There's some innovative stuff on Muddlin' Gear. Normally I'd feel bad that an artist of that talent in that field would abandon it for something else entirely, but his voice is equally impressive to me so I'm happy that he decided to really utilize it. It would be cool to hear him merge those two aspects together more in his future work, and I've no doubt he'll do just that.

i get the impression that the super_collider stuff died because cristian vogel took too much control of the whole project. that's what i get from reading interviews with liddell post-sc.

raw digits is one of my favourite lps of all time, seriously. everything about it is perfect. it's so fucking dark. i've almost worn out its grooves (it's a funny one - side 1 is 33rpm and sides 2-4 are 45rpm iirc...)

i loved multiply but i rarely play it these days because its like the soundtrack to an amazing summer that i spent with a girl. such is life.

jim was awful though. i'm glad we all agree on that.

  On 3/27/2010 at 9:05 PM, margaret thatcher said:

i loved multiply but i rarely play it these days because its like the soundtrack to an amazing summer that i spent with a girl. such is life.

jim was awful though. i'm glad we all agree on that.

I never even listened to Jim, because I didn't like Multiply enough and knew it was basically the same direction.

jim really was awful. multiply is a great record.

This new one is sounding good and I definitely like the cast of characters he's working with. I don't think I've given Mr. Lidell enough of a chance yet, might have to check this out...

Jim feels like a really shallow record to me. There are like three or so really great pop songs and then a few meh songs and the rest is bordering on annoying at this point. And also even the good songs didn't have much "staying power" for me, I got tired of them pretty quickly. It's like everything about them is very on the surface.

Multiply had less outright bad stuff on it but still doesn't feel very "essential" to me, in that same way. The remix disc extended it's life a little bit in my mind, though.

I am totally terrified of this album being full of super-lush yet somehow soulless Beck-esque production and gestures, though. I really can't explain it, but Beck's recent stuff is like, incredibly rich sounding (sonically, I mean) yet almost entirely non-compelling to me at the same time. I'm talking about like, everything from Guero onward. It's like he was replaced by a robot designed perfectly to imitate Beck with Nigel Godrich producing.

  On 3/31/2010 at 4:01 PM, Ascdi said:

I am totally terrified of this album being full of super-lush yet somehow soulless Beck-esque production and gestures, though. I really can't explain it, but Beck's recent stuff is like, incredibly rich sounding (sonically, I mean) yet almost entirely non-compelling to me at the same time. I'm talking about like, everything from Guero onward. It's like he was replaced by a robot designed perfectly to imitate Beck with Nigel Godrich producing.

agree completely with the Beck comment.

good point with the beck comment for sure.

but the information is still pretty great for me

  On 3/31/2010 at 4:01 PM, Ascdi said:

Jim feels like a really shallow record to me. There are like three or so really great pop songs and then a few meh songs and the rest is bordering on annoying at this point. And also even the good songs didn't have much "staying power" for me, I got tired of them pretty quickly. It's like everything about them is very on the surface.

i agree with your shallow comment. i very rarely delete albums - storage is so cheap that there's no point. i listened to jim three times, and deleted it.

have you heard the record club cover of skip spence's 'oar' (as in the album) with jamie? i.e the cover of cripple creek here...

http://www.beck.com/recordclub/index.php/page/2

very nice indeed.

actually has anyone else but me heard this album? it's very interesting stuff.

  On 4/1/2010 at 12:13 AM, kaini said:

 

actually has anyone else but me heard this album? it's very interesting stuff.

I've had it quite a while but never actually listened to it from start to finish. Just a few songs while shuffling.

the lyrics are generated by a computer running an algorithm searching the internet based on a 'seed' word - linked to a printer located next to lidell onstage. at some points he's singing into a telephone - he goes 'ahhh, another day at the office!' at one point, lol. 'rage' is particularly good. i wish i still had it, i lost it in a hdd crash :(

Whoa, I may have preferred Multiply a bit more than you but otherwise, totally agree with you about everything you've said.

  On 2/10/2010 at 9:51 PM, feltcher said:

  Quote

01. Completely Exposed

02. Your Sweet Boom

03. She Needs Me

04. I Wanna Be Your Telephone

05. Enough’s Enough

06. The Ring

07. You Are Waking

08. I Can Love Again

09. It’s A Kiss

10. Compass

11. Gypsy Blood

12. Coma Chameleon

13. Big Drift

14. You See My Light

 

Reads like a fucking break-up album.

 

Multiply = Good.

Jamie Lidell live (circa 2004) = great

Jim =

 

Will need to hear a few more tracks off of this.