In a soulful mood with David & Cullum

Soul is what these two new CDs are about. One, The Pursuit by Jamie Cullum is in a jazzy, soulful mood. The other one, Signed Sealed Delivered by Craig David is a new take on Motown soul. Everything else about them is vastly different but it can be rightly said that both feature excellent performances and great music.

With a title like Signed Sealed Delivered buyers need not listen to a cut or two or even check out the song titles to know what he is getting. Signed Sealed Delivered is an early hit by Stevie Wonder and when you say early Stevie, that can only mean one thing, Motown.

If you are one of those who have always believed original Motown cannot get any funkier, you have another thing coming. Craig David here is funkier than ever and he has some of the greatest songs ever written to strut his stuff with.

One More Lie (Standing In The Shadows) by the Four Tops; All Alone Tonight (Stop, Look, Listen) by the Stylistics; I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye; Just My Imagination by The Temptations; For Once In My Life also by Stevie Wonder; (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of Bay by Otis Redding; Mercy Mercy Me, also by Marvin Gaye; Wonder Why by Curtis Steigers; Papa Was A Rolling Stone by The Temptations; Let’s Stay Together by Al Green and in his own Motown effort, the new original, This Could Be Love.

Signed Sealed Delivered is clearly an experiment. This is not the music of David we are familiar with. This guy’s fans know him best as very hip, very British, with sounds you’ll hear in trendy clubs. All The Way, Born To Do It, Fill Me In, Hot Stuff and others. He also sounds different, some might say not as cool as before, but he is certainly with a wider range and sounding better.

The result is such a delightful album, great from start to finish and I am so glad Craig David made the effort.

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What drew me initially to Jamie Cullum’s The Pursuit is the oldie Not While I’m Around. This guy is an exceptional interpreter and I wanted to find out what he does with this beautiful song by Stephen Sondheim from Sweeney Todd. And it is good, as moving as expected.

Not While I’m Around though is but a very small portion of what Jamie’s first CD in several years has to offer. Take note, his last album release was Catching Tales four years ago. He is back with what must be his most varied CD.

First off, the covers. Just think he brings old time swagger to Cole Porter’s Just One Of Those Things, goes all softly introspective with Leslie Bricusse’s If I Ruled the World and in a big surprise turn, pares down Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music to a rousing jazz ballad.

What really blew me away though are the originals. Cullum has this rare gift, the ability to take music as it is. He goes beyond classifications. He takes anything, writes anything and most of all arranges anything to conform to what he feels. The result is a strange mix of pop ballads, rock, hip-hop and swing that ends up as something very jazzy and distinctly Jamie Cullum.

That is why although The Pursuit grabs attention because of the familiar titles, what comes off best are Cullum’s compositions. He is a brilliant songwriter with words and music that literally flow. Credit goes to how he sings and plays that piano. I do not know if he played piano in all the cuts but Cullum and all the other musicians did excellent jobs in this one.

His best bet for the hit charts is big ballad Love Ain’t Gonna Let You Down which is jazz but has this tinge of emo. I also like the closer Music Is Through, which is so unique in that it brings together all the music types he uses in the album.

Other titles are I’m All Over It, Wheels, You And Me Are Gone, Don’t Stop The Music, Mixtape, I Think, I Love, and We Run Things. And while each cut is different from the rest, Cullum weaves them all together into one enjoyable package.