Album Reviews

Album review: Jamie Woon – Mirrorwriting (Polydor/Candent Songs)

By | Published on Monday 28 March 2011

Jamie Woon

When I heard ‘Night Air’ for the first time I thought it was a fantastic single; soulful, coldly atmospheric and Woon’s vocals complemented it perfectly. The track, co-produced by the soundtracker of London himself Burial, was surely one of the main reasons Jamie Woon was featured high on many a list of 2011’s next big things.

But I’m so disappointed by ‘Mirrorwriting’ that I can barely contain the many yawns that wanted to escape from my starved brain. It begins, as you can imagine, with ‘Night Air’, a strong start no doubt, a song that gives you the sort of confidence that a great album full of diverse and uniquely brilliant tunes lays waiting for you. Then ‘Street’ begins, and you say to yourself ‘OK, so it’s not as good as ‘Night Air’, so what? There’s another ten songs to go’. Then it nosedives, drastically and rapidly. Dull and monotonous, it doesn’t even sound like it’s been made by the same person. The rest of the tracks rely on echoed and reverbed percussion to build presence and atmosphere, but without the grounding and substance of better song writing and more accessible vocal melodies, these are lost.

I’m not saying Jamie Woon isn’t good, far from it. He is a talented guy, with a great voice that could melt hearts, but this record is no evidence of that. I hope when his sophomore effort comes out in the future, it will have more of the punctual grooves we love, and won’t be so painfully forgettable. JJB

Physical release: 11 Apr



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