ARTIST James Morrison
ALBUM Undiscovered
LABEL Polydor
PR Infected PR
I have to own up to a guilty pleasure. Since I got a copy of Undiscovered I can't help donning my headphones and spinning the wheel to hear 21 year old James Morrison's voice.
You see it's not the type of album I usually like. It's got female chorus girls on backing vocals, Nashville strings, major-label muscle and marketing from a young heart-throb with a big name producer. But the kid has talent. He has an ear for a melody and a remarkable voice. Think somewhere between Ray LaMontagne, Al Green and Otis Redding but he's not trying to pastiche the American past, instead he's confronting his own fractured upbringing.
James has opted out of the manufactured route, preferring to write all his own songs, concentrate on lyrics rather than rhymes and do things the hard way. He's not a pop idol protégé, rather someone who busked every day for a year, won over uninterested audiences and flogged CDs to every A&R man he could find. His soul blues songs have maturity, an undeniable pop sensibility and the sound of someone who for the first time loves his life.
Download Better Man here for free (legally).
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